A US Marines "Infantry" Squad, Part 2

This entry is a continuation from a previous one.

As you may remember, I wanted to find out what all the buzz about "infantry" squads was about by experimenting with ArmA 2.

So, I assembled a US Marine "infantry" squad as described by Capt. Sprincin in the Marine Corps Gazette article and lined them up under my command ...

In front of us, a great open area with wonderful fields of fire ...

There is one Russian infantry squad on the other side of the hill in the background, which will advance straight into us.

The first thing I wanted to see is how long does it take to eliminate that Russian squad at different distances. So I ran this scenario several times, ordering the squad to open fire when the Russians enter at three different engagement areas (EA) with their centers 100 meters apart from each other.

For comparison, I ran the same scenario but using a regular "rifle" squad.


With the EA1, 350 m away:
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"Infantry" Squad engaging Russian squad in EA1 (350 m) (3 separate trials)

1. Time to eliminate the Russian squad: 18 seconds/Marines casualties: none
2. Time to eliminate the Russian squad: 21 seconds/Marines casualties: none
3. Time to eliminate the Russian squad: 16 seconds/Marines casualties: 1 injured

"Rifle" Squad engaging Russian squad in EA1 (350 m) (3 separate trials)

1. Time to eliminate the Russian squad: 19 seconds/Marines casualties: none 
2. Time to eliminate the Russian squad: 20 seconds/Marines casualties: none
3. Time to eliminate the Russian squad: 19 seconds/Marines casualties: none

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Things go fast and furious at 350 meters! No difference between "rifle" and "infantry" squads when shooting point blank ...


For EA2, 450 meters:
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"Infantry" Squad engaging Russian squad in EA1 (450 m) (3 separate trials)

1. Time to eliminate the Russian squad: 35 seconds/Marines casualties: none
2. Time to eliminate the Russian squad: 40 seconds/Marines casualties: none
3. Time to eliminate the Russian squad: 37 seconds/Marines casualties: none

 "Rifle" Squad engaging Russian squad in EA1 (450 m) (3 separate trials)

1. Time to eliminate the Russian squad: 61 seconds/Marines casualties: none 
2. Time to eliminate the Russian squad: 63 seconds/Marines casualties: none
3. Time to eliminate the Russian squad: 77 seconds/Marines casualties: none

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The "infantry" squad has an apparent slight advantage over the "rifle" squad on this trial. I don't know if it's significant or not, keep in mind I ran the thing only 3 times.


For EA3, 550 m:
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"Infantry" Squad engaging Russian squad in EA1 (550 m) (3 separate trials)

1. Time to eliminate the Russian squad: 320 seconds/Marines casualties: none
2. Time to eliminate the Russian squad: 291 seconds/Marines casualties: none
3. Time to eliminate the Russian squad: 324 seconds/Marines casualties: none

 "Rifle" Squad engaging Russian squad in EA1 (550 m) (3 separate trials)

1. Time to eliminate the Russian squad: 329 seconds/Marines casualties: none 
2. Time to eliminate the Russian squad: 290 seconds/Marines casualties: none
3. Time to eliminate the Russian squad: 319 seconds/Marines casualties: none

===========================================At this range, I was expecting the M240 to give an edge to the infantry squad but that is apparently not the case. Important to note that in all the trials for both the rifle and infantry squads at 550 m, 2 or more men went out of ammo. Also, in all trials at 550 m the time expresses the time until one or two remaining Russians withdraw crawling and it's not possible for the squad members to acquire them visually.

Cheers,