Praxis: Squad Size. 9, 12 or 13?

The US Army believes that "Nine Is The Magic Number."

Dunnigan's article is based on this RAND report on necessity for future Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) to carry nine dismount Soldiers. A friend forwards it with the comment "Very interesting reading with a good historical summary of US Army squad size, WWII to present."

From the Abstract:

The Army has examined the lessons of half a dozen significant conflicts, starting with World War II, has conducted numerous studies over the last 65 years, and has found time and again that an ability to conduct dismounted fire and maneuver is the fundamental squad-level tactic. It has also consistently determined that squads should be organized around two fire teams and should contain no fewer than nine soldiers — though a larger number has usually been preferred — to accomplish fire and maneuver doctrine, but also for reasons of squad resilience, lethality, and leader span of control. To support fully enabled mechanized infantry squads, the Army has, for the last fifty years, tried to develop and field survivable, lethal infantry fighting vehicles that are also capable of carrying a full nine to eleven man squad that can dismount to fight on foot. The Army has not been able to do this for a variety of reasons, and its current infantry fighting vehicle, the M2 Bradley, cannot carry enough soldiers to enable squad-level fire and maneuver from a single vehicle. As a result, today's mechanized infantry are more at risk when transitioning from mounted to dismounted operations, and squad-level dismounted fire and maneuver is compromised in some situations. The Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV), if developed as planned, will finally provide the infantry with an IFV that can accommodate a full squad. For this reason, the Army considers the program to be one of its most important.

Here is the pdf of the entire report.

And of what utility is this discussion to those of us who don't have an armored vehicle to put 9 dismounts in? I have always been a fan of the four-man fire team times three plus an NCO for a thirteen man squad of armed citizenry. We don't have access to the fun toys of the regulars so we must maximize what we have, which is aimed rifle fire. Also, the fire team is the basic building block of militia, small enough to be within organizational reach of a neighborhood defense organization. The discussion in this report covering the history of the squad is thus useful for thinking about what works for constitutional militia.