Single Line Formation

Why do modern armies seriously do this outdated tactic in 2017? The men are strung out and not able to respond as a group. Therefore they would be easy to pick off by sharpshooters one by one down the line. This needs to be reformed and a group formation where all the squad walks together and therefore concentrated firepower can be used and produce fire superiority pinning down the enemy.

>hit IED 1/2 casualties

Your retarded thought process
>hit IED whole group gone

This is the stupidiest thing I've ever read. Single-line formation is the BEST formation to react to something like a sniper. Everyone knows where to go right away.

All flanks can be covered according to the situation in a fast manner.

Easy terms: One dude goes left, one goes right, one goes...

This doesn't help much because the most experienced NCO is usually up front. Without effective leadership the squad is basically done anyway. It's better to spread out and confuse the enemy.

Because 5 men is juicy opportunity, 1 man is a waste of ammo.

You're a fucking idiot
See

>What is close terrain
>What is low footprint

Formations are chosen based on the tactical situation and terrain,no matter what year.

Also, - - > /k/

>muh effective leadership

And you just gave away the fact that you don't know shit about squad tactics or what a brotherhood in the military is like.

Ever had a man put his life in your hands, and your life in his?

You can't handle the truth.

But there's still a delay between
Outmoded single line formation -> Effective group formation
Why have an unnecessary delay? Just stay in group formation and use your superior firepower so that no enemy would dare shoot back.

OP is a faggot
>pic related

The platoon is made up of leadership at all different levels from platoon leader, platoon sergeant, squad leader, and team leader, each with an understanding of different battle drills. Your ignorance is showing. Fuck off and join the military before your talk idiocy.

>Therefore they would be easy to pick off by sharpshooters one by one down the line.
Why don't they just use one big bullet and get all of them at once?

Sand people always ride single file, to hide their numbers

Yes but this is an argument against single line. One machine gunner just lines up his shot and shoots the entire group because they're using single line formation.

It's like the mass charges of WWI. It's ineffective, old school thinking that must change.

The it to the hooahs to worry about getting their boots wet.

Even worse. A single .50 BMG would take out 3 guys if they're lined up like in pic. It makes you wonder where our tax dollars are going that they don't think of these things.

I see one guy brought his tackle box along. That's nice.

they dont want to walk all over the rice.

Because it looks like a sustainment hike for combat readiness on a physical level? Or a movement to a training area?

Note the dude with the camera and the what looks to be a instructor near him.

It looks like they are doing training with some south american or east asian country.

Do you actually think this is how our military moves? Are you that fucking stupid?


Sage retarded posts by non military fags about military fags.

I'm not going to go full autist on you but there are plenty of good reasons to walk in a file. The main one is that it's the fastest way to move, both because the entire formation is able to use the easiest path (think those guys would be walking just as fast wading through the water?) and because you aren't constantly checking to make sure you're still maintaining your formation and disposition. Sometimes the "fastest path" is also the only one known to be clear of mines.

All soldiers train to move quickly from a file into other formations, in fact this is a major part of every modern soldier's training. This is the first thing that will happen if they come under fire from the front; they're not just going to keep walking forward in a file while they get picked off one by one.

That said, soldiers do not typically walk in a file when expecting contact. However, soldiers also spend lots of time moving from point a to point b with minimal expectation of contact.

>user tactical genius walks in skirmish line everywhere, moves 1 mi/hr
>enemy moves in file to release point, deploys into line on advantageous terrain, wins.

No he isn't. The point man is usually a veteran who knows what he's doing (corporal or thereabouts), but not "the most experienced NCO".

well done ya dumb figgit

Force of habit for americans

We only file due to terrain. Otherwise squad column fireteam wedge

Are those aisles really narrow or is the sense of scale just thrown off because of the flesh elementals?

makes me cringe seeing our boys in non waterproofed boots.

>platoon walks in line
>sniper picks off first guy, rest of platoon assumes position and returns fire while preparing trauma treatment

>platoon walks in group
>40mm HE/RPG lobbed directly into center mass of group
>no more platoon

this is a slide thread.

This. It's all dependent on terrain and visibility. But squad column fireteam wedge is the default.

> No eye pro
> No gloves
> No knee/elbow pads

Bitches ain't leaving the fob

You're an idiot.

>Single-file means the enemy can't tell how many men passed through an area
>If a sniper shoots, they can all scatter in different directions
>An ambush on either flank means they can all turn and fire at the enemy
>They're spread far enough apart that a single grenade can't get them all
>The point man is the most observant guy with the fastest reflexes, because he's most likely to spot the enemy first and respond
>Walking side by side makes infantry an easy target for a machine gun or autocannon (like on a BMP) to just sweep them all away
>Walking single file means they only have to worry about land mines/booby traps in a single area
>If the front of the line gets ambushed, the back of the line can spread out and respond, whereas walking side by side or scattered at random results in the entire group getting ambushed
>Walking single-file makes it harder for people to get lost or to get injured without anyone else knowing about it

>this nigga doesn't know about that bounding overwatch

Dont give out such information soldier

its just thrown off, aisles are over 1.5m

Fm 3-21.8 Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad is unclass info available on the webs

Last thing you ever want to do is take pot shots at a group of soldiers, almost certain they will call in a bomb to be dropped on your position or come and get you themselves.

Why would you fire on them if they knew where you were?

You must be getting your ass kicked by call of duty tonight.

Because you know absolutely fuck all about infantry tactics.

t 20 year vet.

Point man is never high ranking. You also take turns being point man because he is always going to eat it during contact.

So infantry tactical formations are outdated and worthless, right?

In what situation would you ever need an echelon left versus an echelon right, or a vee as opposed to a wedge? Stupid

Using tactics from a video game to win an argument about real WAR?

Femanon here I object to all the stuff they are carrying, makes it too hard for women to join. They should be able to carry everything in a small student type backpack so women can join in. Very sexist.

No pointing out that video Jew must be where OP is getting the shitty basis for his fucked ideas.

Single file formation is for close country. Dense jungle and forest. Ranger file the americans call it.

The guys should be spaced so that each one can only just see the guy he's following. The lead men are scanning to the front. All the guys behind have alternating arcs watching the left and right, and the tail end checks the rear.

It's rare when patrolling around in places with 30m visibility to walk right on to an enemy. More likely a contact will come from the side. The enemy will only see 1 or 2 men at a time through gaps in the foliage. In which case the whole section just needs to turn and fire, they're already in a baseline. If it does come from the front, they immediately push up into one and the other 2 cover the flanks and rear during the firefight.

OP's pic looks like some kind of admin move. Everyone staring at their feet, bad weapon carriage bad spacing. It's no patrol. If it were, there would be a section firm on the side they were coming out of watching the rear, another watching across the clearing, then one would cross and secure enough space on the other side for the rest to come. One advantage to crossing in a single file is to minimize sign and noise. But with a lot better spacing than that pic.

tldr infantry tactics aren't cod .t ex light infantry

A squad only gets into a line formation under very specific circumstances where speed is sacrificed for security.

You're an idiot, in an infantry squad the alpha team leader is the point man and he is the most junior NCO in the squad.

*security is sacrificed for speed.

landmines
don't get lost in the dark
lines of fire cleared to the flanks

>armchair general

It's common in the middle eastern armies.
Sandpeople always ride single file to hide their numbers.

Sand people walk in single file to hide their numbers.

>Single line formation
>random mine only kills one person

>whatever the fuck OP faggot formation
>everyone spaghettis over mine field

>Sup Forums is answering /k/ shit

Your fucking retarded. You spread out MORE with guns as opposed to swords. You bunch up for Melee not for fucking shooting. You're so fucking retarded my head hurts

IED's
Machine guns
Any gun at all
Explosives

There's literally NO POINT in sticking close.

In fact why the fuck is this posted on pol this should be on

>>/k
Or
>>/trash

There's no fucking delay. They have guns not swords you stupid fucking shit they can reach out and touch anyone within line of sight.

Rolling T formation is the best.Just kidding, I just think it sounds cool. I mostly used the single file and wedge during my time as an NCO

Good for him for getting some exercise. I lost a lot of weight with paintball and rugby but I always know how to put it back on haha

>101st RC-East Vet

IEDs dude. Plain and simple. Also Soviet UXO's were a big fucking issue.

Well in this situation it makes sense. Who the fuck wants water up to their damn knees?

bb-but it worked in Call of Duty

> 82nd 1st BDE RC east vet.

Luckily most of the IEDs in my battle space were for vehicles

Please delete this thread, I know of emus that read this board.

What year?

Wow. You haven't fully mastered rhetorics yet have you because you very very very simply misunderstood what he was trying to say. You should go back to lurking until you learn to read. In fact, I'm surprised somone like you even uses this website. I thought smart people come here. Then again most people here don't know a lot of things but yknow, I'd rather come here every day and have some disagreements than go on Facebook or Reddit and be called a nazi because I want to abolish public school or something.

since this is the internet and we can't meet up to test this theory, let's play a scenario in Arma 3, and you can bunch up your squad in group formation, and I won't, and we'll see what happens.

2012. I was attached to A 1-504

I don't understand how this thread keeps getting posted. This is at least the 3rd time I've seen this exact thread in the last few days. Is this a bot autoposting? Is some sad sack user with no life or friends attempting to have some meaningful conversation in his life with an easy bait post? Russian hax0rz trying to get military TTPs?

Don't want to give isis any ideas but why don't they just plant mines near defendable positions in an area prior to an ambush and then shoot at the soldiers (you wouldn't even have to hit em) so that they disperse to the hard points only to be met by mine

Probably because civilians is my guess

But marching formation that reacts into battle formation has been used throughout history because it works. I can't think of any other way armies have organized and fought without this method, with only slight irregularities concerning the weapons or tools used. Geometrically it's sound, a thing shape to cut through environments, and a wide shape to use as much surface area as possible when engaging another enemy front.

so you are under the impression that modern soldiers are advancing to contact in single file? or that anyone has ever advanced to contact in single file?

and for what it was, mass charges were effective. we just dont do that anymore because trench warfare isnt a thing.

You know a fisters name thats starts with a Z?

Quit LaRping like you've been in the military you NEET faggot, you need to keep playing warhammer instead.

>Flesh elementals

Just knew mine. His last name started with an M

Because it us convient to line up in a column as the wider the formation is, the longer it takes to reorient and direct. You don't march into contact in a single or double line but for long marches it is very convient also nice for using roads.

Goddamn your stupidity is giving me a headache

Moving in a file is only ever used in difficult terrain for expediency. Look shit up before you go off running your dumbass mouth.

METT-TC you fucking faggot

It's easy as shit to determine where someone who is shooting at you is, even without fancy gadgets that can tell you the direction a bullet came from.

hide their numbers

>RC-East

10th mtn myself, went to Wardak

>Easy to establish and hold
>Lowest risk of triggering mines and also stealthy
>Best side security of all standard formations

This is probably the best standard formation because it is overall effective. In specific situations you might use other formations.

>a group formation where all the squad walks together and therefore concentrated firepower can be used and produce fire superiority pinning down the enemy.
>the squad walks together
>concentrated firepower
>produce fire superiority

Fire superiority doesn't come from standing close. If you aim at pinning down the enemy and maneurering fast you should actually split your squad up in two elements with one trailing a bit behind to maneuver once the element in the front gets in contact. You want to have your men to spread out so that the enemy has to focus on multiple positions.

>This doesn't help much because the most experienced NCO is usually up front. Without effective leadership the squad is basically done anyway. It's better to spread out and confuse the enemy.
A good NCO would never let any of his men do something he wouldn't do too.

>Posts picture from fuckin Balikatan.

OP is a faggot and a POG.