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The use of formalized ranks in a hierarchical structure came into widespread use with the Roman Army. [citation needed]In modern times, executive control, management and administration of military organization is typically undertaken by governments through a government department within the structure of public administration, often known as a ministry of defence or department of defense.
This is a list of current formations of the United States Army, which is constantly changing as the Army changes its structure over time. Due to the nature of those changes, specifically the restructuring of brigades into autonomous modular brigades, debate has arisen as to whether brigades are units or formations; for the purposes of this list, brigades are currently excluded.
Maneuver brigades have transformed into brigade combat teams, generally consisting of three maneuver battalions, a cavalry squadron, a fires battalion, a special troops battalion (with engineers, signals, and military intelligence), and a command sergeant major and a support battalion. Stryker brigade combat teams have a somewhat larger ...
The chain of command leads from the president (as commander-in-chief) through the secretary of defense down to the newest recruits. [2] [3] The United States Armed Forces are organized through the United States Department of Defense, which oversees a complex structure of joint command and control functions with many units reporting to various commanding officers.
An armored brigade combat team consists of seven battalions: three combined arms battalions, one cavalry (reconnaissance) squadron, one artillery battalion, one engineer battalion and one brigade support battalion. As of 2014, the armored brigade combat team is the largest brigade combat team formation with 4,743 soldiers.
Alternatively, a small number of squadrons are headed by civilian commander-equivalents, known as squadron directors (abbreviated as SQ/CL for civilian leader) - typically at the GS-15 pay grade. Second in command of a squadron is typically a squadron operations officer or director of operations (DO), who is usually a senior-ranking major (O-4).
A squadron was historically a cavalry subunit, a company- or battalion-sized military formation. The term is still used to refer to modern cavalry units, and is also used by other arms and services (frequently aviation, also naval). In some countries, including Italy, the name of the battalion-level cavalry unit translates as "Squadron Group".
(In 1943 NCO platoon leaders were re-designated as platoon sergeants and officer platoon commanders became platoon leaders.) After WWII, in 1948, the Army decided to "downsize” the rifle squad to a nine-man organization (as well as realign its enlisted grade structure), as post-war analysis had shown that the 12-man squad was too large and ...