Battle Order
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Graphic: US Army Ranger Squad (2019)
🕑 Added 2021-12-09 18:44:28 +0000 UTCGraphic I made with the input from a guy who served in the 3rd Ranger Battalion as recent as 2019.
Organizationally, the Rangers are similar to normal light infantry up to the company-level with only minor modifications. For this reason, they could be considered the Army's most elite true infantry. What they differ in is their missionset, selection standards, deployment tempos, and budgets for gear and training. The Ranger specialize in missions like airfield seizures, direct action raids, and providing security and mass for other special operations units.
---Structure---
The organization of the squad is identical to the standard rifle squad, with a Squad Leader and two Fire Teams (Alpha and Bravo). In theory, each team has a Team Leader, Automatic Rifleman, Grenadier and Rifleman. However, due to low manpower, squads usually run smaller.
One unique aspect of the Rangers is the status of the Ranger tab. Completely separate from the 75th Ranger Regiment is Ranger School, which is a leadership school focused on infantry skills. This is unrelated to Ranger selection. Anyone can go and all infantry officers are expected to attend. All those in the Ranger Regiment must earn their Ranger tab before they can fill any sort of leadership position. The graphic shows the Squad Leader, both Team Leaders and Automatic Riflemen (doctrinally an assistant team leader) with tabs. All non-tabs are considered Privates, even if they rank Specialist.
---Equipment---
The standard rifles for the Rangers are the Mk18 and M4A1 Block II. The Mk17 (SCAR-H) can also be used by tabbed squad members, although most prefer the Mk18. The standard squad automatic is the M249 LMG, same as the normal squad, although this can sometimes be substituted with the Mk48 chambered in 7.62mm. All members are allotted a Glock 19 pistol (Mk 27), although they can choose whether they carry it or not. Nowadays there are also standard issue M17 pistols on the books, which some use.
A variety of optics are used, with ELCAN Spectres, Aimpoint T2s and Eotech EXPS3s shown. Grips are also used, including mag well extenders.
