a theater gets allocated army groups, a section of a theater gets divisions/brigades, and then theres battalions that are the biggest tactical units.
ECHELONS
a theater gets allocated army groups, a section of a theater gets divisions/brigades, and then theres battalions that are the biggest tactical units.
Depending on the scale of combat, brigades and even divisions can considered tactical units.
is my assessment correct?
but it's very broad strokes when giving tasks to divisions, and then their subunits do the operations we know of like movement to contact and stuff like that right?
>but it's very broad strokes when giving tasks to divisions, and then their subunits do the operations we know of like movement to contact and stuff like that right?
Generally in the modern day yes, but a Division can still absolutely initiate a movement to contact if the scale of the operation is large enough. Historically it's been done plenty in the Civil War, WW1, WW2, and Korea. After that Division became more of a HQ unit that just meeted out tasks, but the US Army is moving back to having divisions as tacital units again.
Read Clausewitz.
thread
Aren't most things broken into threes? Three squads in a platoon, 3 platoons in a company, 3 companies in a battalion etc? Feel like the symbols should reflect this tbh
Four is actually the best tactical option; three is usually due to constraints
Two and five have occurred
>and then theres battalions that are the biggest tactical units
The reason for this is that the battalion is the single largest unit that could be composed of a single combat arm, ie an infantry battalion
Brigades above are strictly combined arms
>divisions/brigades
In NATO, brigades are the units below a division; Warpact uses "regiment"
in fact I'm confused by regiment/brigade, the sources I've read say that regiment and brigade are the same size but regiment is single arm while brigade is combined arms
anyway do people ITT confirm that battalion is the largest tactical unit? although I get that divisions are used "tactically", but division has a frickton of other stuff like AA, high level logistics, chadded Hq with alot of staff, divisional artillery and mlrs, CAS, repair workshops, hospitals, while to my understanding tactical units have very reduced versions of that, like platoon medic (so that a minor injury that requires little treatment can be dealt with in the field instead of sending a guy back to the rear), then they communicate with the rear through logical trucks that bring them stuff, and take back stuff like empty canteens and give full ones, organic mortars (because they're more nimble, maneuverable, inexpensive, less range, more ammo, higher rate of fire) so you can have them follow the line units to provide suppression, not be too vulnerable and easy to spot, and not be too juicy of a target, and ammo is way less bulky and heavy so you need way less trucks to come to you for resupply, which if you're on the frontline it's important, while I suppose div arty can go to the rear itself and resupply, or alternatively logi trucks can do very short trips and resupply them)
but if it was possible, would it be good to have 155mm arty as the only indirect fire option, even down to the company level?
>anyway do people ITT confirm that battalion is the largest tactical unit?
No you Black person. Currently the largest tactical element in the US is the Brigade, but it will be shifting to the Division when the Army implements it's new Division structure. During tOperation Iraqi Freedom, entire brigades were used as manuever elements. If you send a Brigade or Divisiom into a hostile city, it's still a movement to contact. You just are gonna do Battle Drill 1A on as a Brigade Commander. At that level you're doing larger maneuvers, which are preplanned or you're reinforcing a breakthrough.
For medical, it usually goes like this :
Platoon : you have the one medic that is there to prevent the wounded from bleeding out and advise soldiers as to what NOT do.
Company : there's probably a medical team within the HQ platoon for initial triage and stabilizing the patients for transport.
Battalion : a medical platoon will probably be with the HQ company to coordinate the tactical transport of the wounded and doing surgery to keep them alive until proper evacuation can happen
Brigade : if lucky, there's a actual medical company to handle casualties. It's no actual hospital but it got something set for dozens of wounded, along with a full team of surgeons.
Division : medical battalion attached to a division are more rare but it's been done. You got an actual field hospital there with hundreds of medical personnel, specialized equipment, ect...
Regiments are usually single arm, but are further split into tactical and administrative / historical regiments; only the Russians use tactical regiments any more (and those are sometimes combined arms task forces), NATO regiments are for traditional purposes e.g. Royal Regiment of Scotland; however this is further complicated by the fact that a tank regiment is battalion-sized and so sometimes used casually to refer to a tank battalion... so always check if you mean regiment or Regiment
The word "tactical" means in effect at a small scale, when combined arms and other complex activities starts getting involved then they are called "operational". Some confusion may arise when brigades and even divisions are single-mindedly dedicated to a manoeuvre which is more tactical than operational. So the split between tactical and operational is not clear cut.
>to my understanding tactical units have very reduced versions of that
Yes and no
The difference is more of how complex an activity a unit is enabled or instructed to perform
>if it was possible, would it be good to have 155mm arty as the only indirect fire option, even down to the company level
Absolutely not
155mm arty eats ammo and cargo capacity like Pringles
Some armies use regiments as an administrative unit for recruitment and training.
In those, a "regiment" doesn't get into the field : it sends a battalion while the rest of the regiment is busy organizing the supply train and training the next batch of poor frickers.
Modern armies stopped using regiments in a meaningful way.
They are basically reinforced battalion or a very skinny brigade.
>Four is actually the best tactical option; three is usually due to constraints
what about 4 fireteams in a squad?
Of course, an 8 man squad typically splits into 4 fire teams of 2 men each, but the constraint here is size of APC
It's realistically 3 to 5. Normally it's 3 to 4 line units plus a headquarters element
A typical infantry battalion is
A Co
B Co
C Co
D Co (weapons company)
Headquarters Company
3 maneuver squads(assault rifle, lmg, gl) and 1 weapons squad (mmg and atgm)
Three is for offense and mobility like tanks on a plain. Four is for slower-moving and more complex scenarios like urban infantry.
In practice though 3 is a way for bureaucrats to cut money without cutting officer jobs.
What's all this in aid of? PC game?
no
I want to understand how these things work because I'm very interested in them, and I'd like to be in a military career if it wasnt for the fact that where I live it wouldn't make sense to do so
Quality post, anon.
thanks
>Region
How many men is that?