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A recent question I got was "what equipment do Marines carry?". This is a really broad question and I'm nearly 7+ years removed from my time in the Marine Corps so it's changed a lot. But for the sake of discussion, let's do the Marine rifle squad circa 2011 (my last deployment).
It's worth noting first that SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) will vary from battalion (800-1K men) to battalion, company (120-140) to company, platoon to platoon (39), and maybe even squad (13) to squad. Also worth noting that the Marine rifle squad of today is moving away
from traditional 13 man squad to a 15 man squad (adding EW/drone + AT/marksmen to each squad). More reading on that here https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2019/08/09/15-marine-rifle-squad-an-exclusive-look-inside-the-future-infantry/
For the official Marine pub on the Marine rifle squad look here: https://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/Publications/MCIP%203-10A.4i%20wChg1.pdf?ver=2020-05-22-085455-150
For the official Marine pub on the Marine rifle squad look here: https://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/Publications/MCIP%203-10A.4i%20wChg1.pdf?ver=2020-05-22-085455-150
So the basis of the Marine rifle squad is the same building block as every other Marine infantry unit: 3 four man fireteams to each 3 fireteam squad, to each 3 squad platoon, to each 3 platoon company, to each 3 company battalion, to each 3 battalion regiment... etc.
Those fireteams are designed to be the smallest self supporting units in the Marine Corps, functioning as part of a squad. A squad may or may not operate with a platoon (or larger) unit, but generally doesn't get split much smaller than a squad (COIN can provide that exception).
A fireteam generally consists of (1) fireteam leader (1) grenadier (1) automatic rifleman (1) rifleman (also often the point man for the team). This is not an absolute, as often the fireteam leader often carries the grenade launcher as well. The spread of weapons (in 2011) would
be (1) M203 grenade launcher, (3) M4s or M16A4s, and (1) M249 SAW. Three of these fireteams report to a squad leader (who has likely appointed an assistant squad leader who only steps up if he's incapacitated). The squad leader carries an M4/M16 and often a grenade launcher (more
for signaling/obscuration than offensive, but he would carry offensive ammo too). Somewhere in the mix is at least one longer range radio, and multiple smaller radios, at least one with the squad leader, and likely a spread with the fireteam leaders as well. GPS are more and more
a common place item from where we had *1* per squad when I deployed in 2006, to 1-2 per fireteam by 2010-2011. Alongside the GPS multiple, if not every, member of the squad will carry some form of map. For Afghan, we used Grid Reference Graphs, which were absolutely invaluable.
Ever rifleman carried an ACOG magnified optic, some form of IR/visible laser aiming device, and had access to (if not mounted) a tactical flashlight. Optics varied for SAW gunners between ELCANs, EOTechs, and ACOGs. Body armor was uniform, a plate carrier with front/back, &2 side
plates plus a helmet. While we were issued camelbacks, I rarely saw anyone use one. Water bottles were a lot more common. IFAK (individual first aid kits) were a required piece of kit, not just for you, but so your buddy could use yours to help fix you. In my unit this meant we
mounted our IFAK in a way that would be easily accessible to a buddy if we went down. A minimum of 7 magazines for riflemen, betwee 400-1000 rds for SAW gunners. Most of the above was pretty standard across the Marine Corps. You start seeing changes in the individual loadouts as
you get more descriptive. Does everyone get grenades or are they only issued to specific squad members? My first deployment only team leaders had frags. My last deployment *everyone* had at least one. Smoke hand grenades were a squad leader item and he issued them out as called
for, whereas every 203 gunner almost always had at least one or two smoke or star cluster rounds. There's a million other little odd pieces of gear everyone carried (cleaning kit, knife, compass for redundancy, batteries etc), but for the most part that's the primary gear carried
in *every* rifle squad. You begin to add more parts if your squad has a trained designated marksman who can carry a marksman's semi-auto rifle (several variants) or if the mission calls for (or SOP calls for) LAW or AT4 rockets. The 6 round Mk32 grenade launcher was a platoon
item that could be issued to a specific individual or rotated as squads/patrols needed them, but I don't ever recall seeing more than one per platoon (it's a great piece of gear but very heavy).
Generally speaking, once you move past these weapons/gear, you're talking about
Generally speaking, once you move past these weapons/gear, you're talking about
"attachments". Attachments are Marines not organic to that rifle squad attached for a particular mission/duration of time. While an M240 could be issued to the squad (as we did in LAR) it is more generally carried by a trained machine gun team who is detached from weapons platoon
and assigned to your squad/platoon. Similarly with 60mm mortars (mortarmen), SMAW or Javelin (Assaultmen), you would not just check those weapons out, you'd have a team assigned to plus you up with that capability, keeping the core structure of the squad fully capable to engage
with primary weapon systems. Scout Snipers can be attached but generally did not spend great amount of times mingling with the rifle squad, instead sticking to small 2-4 man sniper teams and working on specific taskers.
Pistols are a weird thing in the Marine Corps, in that
Pistols are a weird thing in the Marine Corps, in that
while most SNCOs and officers rate one, it's a bit hazier in practice for the lower ranks. Ever open bolt gunner *should* have one but that practice rarely happens in practice. And pistols are often just left behind on patrol (I refused to sign for one on my last deployment).
Anywho, that's an extremely simple overview, and again it changes wildly from unit to unit, and even more so now that the SAW is out of the fireteam, and the M27 is increasingly replacing M4s. But someone asked so there it is.
