Fireteam

For the video game, see FireTeam (video game).
A Georgia National Guard fireteam armed with M4 carbines during a military exercise.
NATO Map Symbols[1]

A fireteam

An infantry fireteam

a military police dog team

an Engineer EOD team

A fireteam or fire team is a small modern military subordinated element of infantry designed to optimize "NCO initiative", "combined arms", "bounding overwatch" and "fire and movement" tactical doctrine in combat.[2] Depending on mission requirements, a typical "standard" fireteam consists of four or fewer members: an automatic rifleman, a grenadier, a rifleman, and a designated fireteam leader. The role of each fireteam leader is to ensure that the fireteam operates as a cohesive unit. Two or three fireteams are organized into a section or squad in co-ordinated operations, which is led by a squad leader.[3][4][5][6][7][8]

Historically, militaries with strong reliance and emphasis on decentralized NCO-corp institutions and effective "bottom-up" fireteam organization command structures have had significantly better combat performance from their infantry units in comparison to militaries limited to officer-reliant operations, traditionally larger units lacking NCO-leadership and "top-down" centralized-command structures. Fireteam organization addresses the realities of 21st-century warfare where combat is getting exponentially faster and more lethal as it identifies and removes anything which slows down the reaction time between first detection of an enemy and rounds impacted.[9][10]

U.S. Army doctrine recognizes the fire team, or crew, as the smallest military organization[11][12] while NATO doctrine refers to this level of organization simply as team.[13] Fireteams are the most basic organization upon which modern infantry units are built in the British Army, Royal Air Force Regiment, Royal Marines, United States Army, United States Marine Corps, United States Air Force Security Forces, Canadian Forces, and Australian Army.

  1. ^ APP-6C Joint Military Symbology (PDF). NATO. May 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-21.
  2. ^ "U.S. Army Infantry Squad Organization". AAManual. Archived from the original on 10 August 2017. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  3. ^ "Field Manual" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-11-20. Retrieved 2015-01-12.
  4. ^ "MOS 11B - Infantryman Duty Descriptions". www.armywriter.com. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  5. ^ "Job Description of a United States Army Infantry Team Leader". 23 June 2013. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  6. ^ "What Are the Duties of Infantry Team Leaders?". 18 June 2013. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  7. ^ http://www.usnavy.vt.edu/Marines/PLC_Junior/Fall_Semester/TACT3022_Offensive_Combat1&Combat_Signs_Student_Outline.pdf Archived 2020-01-22 at the Wayback Machine [bare URL PDF]
  8. ^ "Sample Army Team Leader Duties, Responsibilities and Job Description - Citizen Soldier Resource Center". 26 February 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  9. ^ "How Ukraine's Roving Teams of Light Infantry Helped Win the Battle of Sumy: Lessons for the US Army". 17 August 2022.
  10. ^ https://static.rusi.org/403-SR-Russian-Tactics-web-final.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  11. ^ ADP 3-90 Offense and Defense. Washington, DC: US Department of the Army. 31 August 2012. p. 7.
  12. ^ FM 1-02.2 Military Symbols. Washington, DC: US Department of the Army. 10 November 2020. pp. 2–6.
  13. ^ APP-6D NATO Joint Military Symbology. NATO Standardization Office. October 2017. pp. 3–67.