According to sporadic coverage on TFB and Task and Purpose, the Marine Gazette (which I can no longer access due to it being a members-only archived story), the USMC is apparently giving a serious look into 15-marine squads.
A squad will consist of three four-men fireteams, including two assault teams and one fire support team, plus a three-men command team. Some or all team leaders tot M4A1s, while the remainder are armed with HK416-variants, including the M27 infantry automatic rifles, a few marksman's rifles and one M249 LMG, sprinkled with under-slung grenade launchers, with Suppressors all around. I recall the fire support team humps a Karl Gustav and maybe LAW or AT4s. Plus a UAV and a counter-UAV system, and a radio.
This really looks a bit like a WWI rifle section and quite a bit lighter on automatic suppressive firepower vs traditional infantry layouts. My uneducated guess is that they anticipate a lot of close quarters battle where marines would fight as assaulters, that deficits in volume of fire would be made up for by vehicle-mounted .50 cal HMGs, and that they deem 16-inch barrel is a decent enough solution for both close in work and fights out to 400m and beyond.
Would that actually work?
A squad will consist of three four-men fireteams, including two assault teams and one fire support team, plus a three-men command team. Some or all team leaders tot M4A1s, while the remainder are armed with HK416-variants, including the M27 infantry automatic rifles, a few marksman's rifles and one M249 LMG, sprinkled with under-slung grenade launchers, with Suppressors all around. I recall the fire support team humps a Karl Gustav and maybe LAW or AT4s. Plus a UAV and a counter-UAV system, and a radio.
This really looks a bit like a WWI rifle section and quite a bit lighter on automatic suppressive firepower vs traditional infantry layouts. My uneducated guess is that they anticipate a lot of close quarters battle where marines would fight as assaulters, that deficits in volume of fire would be made up for by vehicle-mounted .50 cal HMGs, and that they deem 16-inch barrel is a decent enough solution for both close in work and fights out to 400m and beyond.
Would that actually work?
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