military weapons questions

[akodo]

Okay, I have some questions about infantry arms at the lower levels of organizations. This will be for USA army, I know the USMC does somethign different and so does probably every other armed force out there, close, but not the same.

Fireteam
-Leader with M16
-Radioman with M16 + radio
-Grenader with M16 +M203 underslug genade launcher
-SAW with M249

An infantry rifle squad is a staff sgt in charge of 2 fireteams

A Rifle Platoon is 3 rifle squads and a weapons squad

What is the weaponry and men assigned to the weapons squad?
I have found that it is 2 machineguns and 2 anti-tank weapons, each 'weapon' having a gunner and an assistant, and a staff sgt over them all, so that's 9 men. I assume all assistants carry M-16s, do the AT troopers also carry M-16s? Are the 2 machineguns SAWs or are they M240s?

A Rifle Company is 3 rifle platoons and a weapons platoon. What is the weaponry of the weapons platoon? Is this where the light mortars come in? Is this where the M2s are found?

 

[rero360]

I wish I could help you there, you'd think I would know spending 6 years as an infantry soldier, but I was in a scout platoon attached to HQ. We had M16s, M203s, SAWs, and M24s. I can't think of the FM #, off the top of my head, 7-8 I think, but the one that covers Infantry tactics and organization should have all your answers. At the largest our platoon was 13 people including an LT, had only one of the three sniper teams that we could have had.

 

[CHAINGUNMASSACRE]

They are usually 240B's nowadays. Sometimes the AT will cary a "shorty 249 with a collapsable stock and an ACOG. And most units have their M-16's rear-echelon. Everyone else has an M4.

 

[sacp81170a]

I thought the Army was using 5 man fire teams, making a squad two fire teams w/a squad leader for a total of 11 personnel. Has this changed?

 

[Killermonkey21]

I'm artillery, but we did the Infantry dismount training at JRTC at Ft Polk.

They had us organize into a weapons squad.
SSG as Weapons Squad Leader (Weasel), with M4
2x240B, gunners with M4, I have heard their SUPPOSED to have M9's and 240B, not a rifle.
2xAssisstant gunners w/ spare barrel, tripod, and M4
3xSAW gunners with M145 optics

This was more because we were short staffed, but it worked.

I agree with trying to find the FM for it. Just do a google search for US army infantry FM, you'll find it in there somewhere.

Carry on.

 

[SchHrdKncks]

I was in a weapons squad which consisted of a gunner, assistant gunner, and an ammo bearer. The assistant gunner was usually the senior guy on the team. Therefore at full strength the weapon squad was 3 gun teams and the squad leader, 10 men.

 

[possum]

maybe i can be of assistance. I am an Infantry team leader, and the important thing to remeber is that the standard is different at different units. ie in my first unit we had the machine gunners integrated into the squads, here at my current unit there is an individual weapons squad.