The USMC will drive you crazy !!!

[Imp]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

And just when we thought it was safe to get back in the water.

Seems field testing of the 12-man USMC rifle squad has run into some issues. No surprise, the 3-man fireteam was destined to have problems, one combat loss and the team loses 33% of it's effectiveness (probably 66% as a wounded man needs immediate treatment by his buddy for a couple minutes till a corpsman arrives).

So Headquarters Marine Corps is actually paying attention to the the professional infantry types and they're probably going to a 15-man squad.
1 x Squad Leader (Sgt)
1 x Assistant Squad Leader (Corp) Mostly to handle communications and position plotting
1 x Systems Operator (L/Cpl) To handle the squad drone and any other sensors the squad may be using
3 x 4-Man Fireteams
-- 1 x Team Leader (Cpl)
-- 1 x Automatic Rifleman (L/Cpl)
-- 1 x Rifleman M16 or DMR or MAAW as needed (PFC)
-- 1 x Grenadier M16+M302 (Pvt or PFC)

At this point NO CONCLUSIVE DECISION has made concerning the restructure, but the 15-man TO&E seems to be probable. Until a final decision is made no OOB changes are suggested.

(( If adopted this will require some serious rework when it comes to the passenger capacity of transports OR making a squad consist of 2 elements rather then one. ))

Okay that makes a bit more sense previous rendition they had reduced infantries AT capabilities. Not prudent as already lost the tanks so dealing with even light armour like IFV's could be a problem.

[DRG]

Not relevant to the game but interesting info nonetheless

https://www.guns.com/news/2021/01/05...o-field-30-000

[DRG]

Andy built a program to check differences between one version of an OOB and another to allow me to check some changes made and for giggles I thought I would compare what will be the next release USMC OOB with the one we issued with Ver1 of winSPMBT.

The results are attached for anyone interested in the work that goes into this. It is posted as an attachment because the list contains 23X more characters than is allowed for one post on Shrapnel and it's zipped because it's 12x bigger than the allowance for posting a TXT file!

[MarkSheppard]

USMC helo count at the end of each calendar year on 31 Dec. Useful to help build scenarios, because you'll have an idea of just how much of a certain type the USMC had.

From:
MARINES AND HELICOPTERS 1946 - 1962
By Lieutenant Colonel Eugene W. Rawlins, USMC
HISTORY AND MUSEUMS DIVISION HEADQUARTERS, U. S. MARINE CORPS WASHINGTON, D. C. -- 1976

[Suhiir]

Useful info for early date scenarios.

Most modern scenarios (late Vietnam to present day) should be based around an MEU which uses a composite helo squadron which is usually:
2x AH-1
3x UH-1
6x V-22
2x UH-53

Numbers will a bit depending on any expected missions.

[Suhiir]

It seems the 12-man squad was just a(nother) temporary blip in USMC unit organization.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8l38U5Gb34

The 15-man squad squad is the new norm.

The above vid give an excellent break down of what was done when and why.

[DRG]

Can the squad organization be broken down like it is for fireteams?

[Suhiir]

Originally Posted by DRG

Can the squad organization be broken down like it is for fireteams?

Easily.
The problem is the 10 unit limit in formations when it comes to motorized, mechanized, or heloborne forces.

[DRG]

......and that's where " creativity" comes into play

[Suhiir]

Yet more (irrelevant to WinSPMBT) craziness.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...S_launcher.jpg

I'm not the current Commandant but I fail to see how tailoring the USMC to one specific mission profile, island defense, is beneficial in the long run.

MANY have claimed the USMC has become a second (and much smaller) US Army. While they do use a lot of the same equipment (after all that's whats available/affordable) the overall emphasis the USMC places on transportability (particularly via water) has become more and more of an issue. The US Army designs it equipment/formations around what's needed to accomplish a specific mission profile, airborne, mountain, heloborne, armor, etc. but pay little to no attention to how the units/equipment will get to the fight. The US has a large ocean to cross to get anywhere (other then Canada/Mexico). It takes them months to get into the where they're needed (WWI war declared 6 Apr 1917 significant units arrive in Europe Oct 1917; WW2 7 Dec 1941 operation Torch Nov 1942; Korea invaded 25 Jun 1950 Inchon landing Sep 1950; Desert Shield/Storm Kuwait invaded 2 Aug 1990 liberated 24-28 Feb 1991).

The current USMC Commandant seems to assume little to no opposition to the deployment of his Littoral Regiments. And when the Divisions get to the battle they'll have zero armored support (rather useful for dealing with fortifications and defensive positions) and less artillery (fine IF you're near the coast AND the US Navy is nearby).



I fully expect the next Commandant (or the one after) to reverse this trend.