The Marine Corps has settled the debate over the size of a rifle squad
A standard Marine Corps rifle squad will continue to be 13 Marines with at least one rifleman trained for expertise in long-range weapons like drones, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith announced on Monday.
'This includes a school-trained squad leader sergeant and three fire teams,' Smith said at the Navy League Sea-Air-Space 2025 conference at National Harbor, Maryland. 'While this structure sounds familiar, it now includes an organic precision fires specialist.'
Precision fires are weapons soldiers use to attack an enemy from a distance beyond that of a direct assault, such as mortars, rockets or loitering munitions and drones.
The Marines have experimented with squads with as few as 12 Marines to as many as 15.
The changes that Smith announced apply to both traditional infantry battalions and the Marine Corps' new littoral combat teams, said Lt. Col. Eric Flanagan, a spokesman for Combat Development and Integration. The Marines have tinkered with the size of a standard infantry squad — the basic building-block of the Marine Corps' frontline units — for several years.
Starting in 2018, the Marines experimented with adding an assistant squad leader and squad systems operator to rifle squads, but this was limited to experimental battalions,
Flanagan told Task & Purpose.
Previous infantry battalion experiments had also looked at having 14-Marine squads divided into two fire teams, along with a Navy corpsman, which would have increased the total size of the squad to 15, Flanagan said.
'Recent Fleet Marine Force feedback and in-stride reading of IBX [Infantry Battalion Experimentation] efforts make the case for maintaining the 13-Marine Rifle Squad and reorganizing it into three teams of four Marines, with a school-trained sergeant squad leader, corporal assistant squad leader, and corporals assigned as fireteam leaders,' Flanagan wrote in an email.
The decision to add a precision fires specialist to rifle squads was largely based on what Marine leaders have learned from Ukraine, Flanagan said. Loitering munitions are becoming increasingly precise, offer real-time intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, and have a psychological impact.
'Over the last few years, we experimented with our Organic Precision Fires (OPF) capability to provide multiple echelons of the FMF [Fleet Marine Force] with an organic, loitering, beyond line-of-sight precision strike capability,' Flanagan wrote. 'This extends the range and increases the lethality of our Marine infantry squads and platoons.'
Smith said his decision on the size composition of rifle squads is part of a 'campaign of learning' based on feedback from battalion commanders.
In another force structure change, Smith announced that the Marines are establishing a dedicated fires and reconnaissance company within infantry battalions by shifting resources from headquarters and services companies.
'By consolidating our 81mm mortars, our organic precision fires, and a scout platoon into a single unit, we're better postured to integrate intelligence, precision fires, and reconnaissance at greater ranges – it's all about range – to better enable battalion maneuver – and it is all about range,' Smith said.
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