The support company usually contains anti-tank, machine gun, mortar, pioneer and reconnaissance platoons. The HQ company contains signals, quartermaster, catering, intelligence, administration, pay, training, operations and medical elements.
Each company is commanded by a major, the officer commanding (OC), with a captain or senior lieutenant as second-in-command (2IC). It normally has a headquarters company, support company, and three rifle companies (usually, but not always, A, B and C Companies). Other corps usually use the term regiment instead.Īn infantry battalion is numbered ordinarily within its regiment (e.g., 1st Battalion, The Rifles, usually referred to as 1 Rifles).
It was formerly used for a few units in the Royal Engineers (before they switched to regiments), and was also used in the now defunct Royal Army Ordnance Corps and Royal Pioneer Corps. The term battalion is used in the infantry, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, and Intelligence Corps only. The French changed the spelling to bataillon, whereupon it directly entered into German. The term is Italian in origin, appearing as battaglione. Every battalion will also include some sort of combat service support, typically organized within a combat support company. The bulk of a battalion will ordinarily be homogeneous with respect to type (e.g., an infantry battalion or a tank battalion), although there are many exceptions. The battalion is usually part of a regiment, brigade, or group, depending on the organizational model used by that service. There may even be subtle distinctions within a nation's branches of arms, such as a distinction between a tank battalion and an armored squadron, depending on how the unit's operational role is perceived to fit into the army's historical organization.Ī battalion is generally the smallest military unit capable of independent operations (i.e., not attached to a higher command), although many armies have smaller units that are self-sustaining. The nomenclature varies by nationality and by branch of arms, for instance, some armies organize their infantry into battalions, but call battalion-sized cavalry, reconnaissance, or tank units a squadron or a regiment instead. Several battalions form a regiment or brigade. Symbol of the Austrian 14th Armoured Battalion in NATO military graphic symbolsĪustralian 11th (Western Australia) Battalion, 3rd Infantry Brigade, Australian Imperial Force posing on the Great Pyramid of Giza on 10 January 1915Ī battalion is a military unit with 300 to 1,200 soldiers that usually consists of two to seven companies and is commanded by either a lieutenant colonel or a colonel. Standard NATO code for a friendly infantry battalion.
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