Squad

In a military context, a squad is a sub-unit that is typically sub-ordinate to a platoon, consisting of between 5 and 15 soldiers, and is led by a. A squad may be an indivisible unit with no further sub-units or subdivided into smaller teams or groups. Terminology varies country-to-country, with common equivalents being the section, group, or team.

While the concept of a squad pre-dated the 20th century as completely subordinate units with little to no independence, primarily as a means to maintain control of privates in combat or the march, squads did not become important or independent maneuver elements until the Grand Campaigns. Before the conflict, the company was typically the smallest independent maneuver element in the infantry. With the proliferation of specialized weapons—such as automatic rifles and light machine guns, rifle grenades, and hand grenades—platoons became increasingly important. The squad came into its own when these weapon systems began to be commonly integrated into single squads rather than being task organized at the platoon level.

The concept of squad-level fire and maneuver whereby sub-units within a single squad could maneuever by itself with mutual support from within the squad came about during the interwar period between the Grand Campaigns and Great Kesh War. As became more portable and other weapons such as  and  became common classes of small arms, the concept was widely applied during the Govic Revolutionary War and Great Kesh War. A typical application was the use of a gun/fire/support group, with a belt-fed or magazine-fed light machine gun who would support the assault, and a rifle/maneuver/assault group, composed of riflemen or submachine gunners who would conduct the assault. Other methods of squad organization were applied prior to the Kesh War by some, but widely adopted afterwards, including the use of equally-sized and armed fire teams and the integration of anti-tank weapons.

Tiperyn
The Tiperyn Realm Defence solidified the Rifleer Section as a combat unit during the Grand Campaigns. Prior to the war, the section was simply an arbitrary division of 10 riflemen divided by height when standing in platoon formation under the command of one of the platoon's four Corporals. This grouping was in service when Tiperyn entered the Grand Campaigns in 1919. However, as the Grand Campaigns progressed, it became evident that the pre-war small unit organizations were not capable enough for the modern battlefield. As machine gun technology was improved to the point where relatively light belt-fed machine guns and magazine-fed automatic rifles could be issued to the section, the ad hoc and doctrinally irrelevant sections were canonized as Rifleer Sections under the platoon. Still 10 men overall, they were then also armed with Kayan-produced magazine-fed light machine guns or Tiperyn-produced belt-fed light machine guns depending on the unit and two cup grenade dischargers that could be affixed to their rifles. Additionally, the Section Commander billet in the Realm Guard (Section Leader in the Fleet Marine Corps) was elevated to Lance Sergeant—a rank previously reserved for Corporals temporarily acting as Platoon Sergeants—to reflect the added specialization and responsibility. During the later stages of the Grand Campaigns the section continued to be a single entity with no further subdivisions, although this would change immediately after the armistice.

Thus, from 1922 to 1925, the Tiperyn Realm Guard Rifleer Section, or Sjiteerseksye, consisted of the following:
 * Section Commander (Seksyekomandant) — Lance Sergeant (OR-5), armed with a Gw. 1905 rifle
 * Gunner No. 1 (Masinesjiteer No. 1) — Lance Corporal or Corporal, armed with a Cho Model 1915 machine gun
 * Gunner No. 2 (Masinesjiteer No. 2) — Private, armed with a Gw. 1905 rifle
 * 2 Rifle Grenadiers (Grenadeer) — Privates, armed with Gw. 1905 rifles and cup dischargers
 * 5 Rifleers (Sjiteer) — Privates, armed with Gw. 1905 rifles