Infantry battalion
| Military organization | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Typical units | Typical numbers | Typical commander |
| fireteam | 3–4 | corporal |
|
squad/ section |
8–12 | sergeant |
| platoon | 15–30 | lieutenant |
| company | 80–150 | captain/major |
|
battalion/ cohort |
300–800 | lieutenant colonel |
|
regiment/ brigade |
2,000–4,000 |
colonel/ brigadier general |
|
division/ legion |
10,000–15,000 | major general |
| corps | 20,000–40,000 | lieutenant general |
| field army | 80,000+ | general |
| army group | 2+ field armies |
field marshal/ five-star general |
|
region/ theater |
4+ army groups | Six-star rank/Head of state |
A battalion is a military unit. The use of the term "battalion" varies by nationality and branch of service. Typically a battalion consists of 300 to 800 soldiers and is divided into a number of companies. A battalion is typically commanded by a lieutenant colonel. In some countries the word "battalion" is associated with the infantry.
The term was first used in Italian as battaglione no later than the 16th century. It derived from the Italian word for battle, battaglia. The first use of battalion in English was in the 1580s, and the first use to mean "part of a regiment" is from 1708.
A battalion is the smallest military organization capable of "limited independent operations", in that the battalion is the lowest-level organizational unit containing an organic coordinating, or executive, staff (i.e., S-1, S-2, etc.) and a support and services unit (e.g., headquarters and headquarters company). The battalion must, of course, have a source of re-supply to enable it to sustain operations for more than a few days. This is because a battalion's basic load of ammunition, expendable weapons (e.g., hand grenades and disposable rocket launchers), water, rations, fuel, lubricants, replacement parts, batteries, and medical supplies normally consists of only what the battalion's soldiers and the battalion's organic vehicles can carry.
In addition to consisting of sufficient personnel and equipment (usually at least two primary mission companies and one mission support company) to perform significant operations, as well as a limited self-contained administrative and logistics capability, the commander is provided with a full-time staff whose function is to coordinate current operations and plan future operations. A battalion's subordinate units (companies and their organic platoons) are dependent upon the battalion headquarters for command, control, communications, and intelligence and the battalion's organic service and support structure to perform their mission. The battalion is usually part of a regiment, brigade, or group, depending on the organizational model used by that service.
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