Improved Infantry Squad Capabilities Article

[Tony Williams]

How can we illustrate the overlapping weapons capabilities available to the squad, platoon, company, and so on? The focus should be on those assets organic to the unit. Air and artillery are always there, but but time and "higher" approval is not on the side of a small unit under immediate pressure.

Our discussion of the ideal infantry cartridge will become a lot more meaningful once that combination of capabilities is laid out.

Sure. But it is noticeable that recent conflicts have involved dealing with insurgents who are embedded in a local community which it is politically important to keep onside. This means that collateral damage needs to be avoided as far as possible, implying the use of anti-personnel weapons of considerable precision and very limited destructiveness - which nicely describes a long-range rifle...