Section (military unit)

U.S. Army and Indian Army soldiers, numbering roughly the size of a section, during a military exercise

A section is a military sub-subunit. It usually consists of between 6 and 20 personnel. NATO and U.S. doctrine define a section as an organization "larger than a squad, but smaller than a platoon."[1][2][3] As such, two or more sections usually make up an army platoon or an air force flight.

In the Australian, British and Canadian Armed Forces section is a equivalent to an infantry squad:[4]

  • the Canadian Army infantry section contains 2 four-Soldier assault group[5]
  • the Australian / British Army infantry section contains 2 four-Soldier fire teams[6][7]
  • the U.S. Army Infantry squad also contains 2 four-Soldier fire teams[8]

In this regard, in a number of Slavic languages the morphological equivalent of the word section (a separate part of an organization; Belarusian: аддзяленне, Bulgarian: отделение, Russian: отделение, Rusyn: удділеня, Ukrainian: відділення) in military affairs also means squad.

At the same time, in a number of Romance languages the phonetic analogue of the word section (French: section, Spanish: sección, Romanian: secţie, Italian: sezione) in military affairs means platoon or a sub-unit similar to a platoon.[9]

In some air forces, a section is a unit containing three to four aircraft (if it is a flying unit) and up to 20 personnel. In the U.S. Space Force two or more guardians form a section.[10]

  1. ^ ADP 3-90, p. 2–18.
  2. ^ APP-06, p. 57.
  3. ^ FM 1-02.2, p. 15.
  4. ^ Sattler & O’Leary 2010, pp. 26, 27.
  5. ^ B-GL-309-003/FT-001, p. 2-13.
  6. ^ LWD 3-3-7, p. 2-9.
  7. ^ "Our people". The British Army.
  8. ^ ATP 3-21.71, p. 6.
  9. ^ APP-06, pp. 805, 806, 812, 814, 821.
  10. ^ "Military Units: Space Force". U.S. Department of Defense.

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