' Smaller groups of soldiers may be referred to as a 'platoon' or a 'unit,' whereas larger groups of soldiers may be referred to as a 'regiment' or a 'brigade.
A brigade consists of a few battalions and anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers. A colonel is generally in command. For historical reasons, armor and Ranger units of brigade size are called regiments, and the equivalent Special Forces units are called groups.
Troop in the sense of "a group of soldiers" is an example of a collective noun, like group, family, or collection. If you use the plural form troops to mean "more than one group of soldiers" — the meaning I insisted upon in high school — it's a plural collective noun.
Three or four squads make up a platoon, which has 20 to 50 soldiers and is commanded by a lieutenant. Two or more platoons make up a company, which has 100 to 250 soldiers and is commanded by a captain or a major.
Battalion. A battalion in the U.S. Army is normally made up of three companies and 300 to 1,000 soldiers, but can have up to five companies. An armored or air cavalry unit of similar size is called a squadron.
A company typically has 100 to 200 soldiers, and a battalion is a combat unit of 500 to 800 soldiers. Three to five battalions, approximately 1,500 to 4,000 soldiers, comprise a brigade.
The man who was in charge of a century of infantry soldiers (80 soldiers) was called a centurion. The man who was in charge of a turma of cavalry soldiers (30 soldiers) was called a decurion.
Centuria (Latin: [kɛn̪ˈt̪ʊria], plural centuriae) is a Latin term (from the stem centum meaning one hundred) denoting military units originally consisting of 100 men.
A battalion, usually about 400-strong, is comprised of three rifle companies, a combat support company, and a headquarters company.
A legion was nominally composed of 6,000 soldiers, and each legion was divided up into 10 cohorts, with each cohort containing 6 centuria.
It's troops – specifically, the use of that word as a stand-in for soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors. Of course, a troop can also refer to a group of soldiers, boy or girl scouts, or a squadron.
A troop is a squad or team of soldiers. Your great grandfather might claim that his was the first army troop to march into France during World War II. Though it's correct to use the noun troop in the singular form, it's more common to see its plural, troops.
Others, such as Bryan Garner, hold that any number of people can be referred to as troops, so long as there are at least two. But when the plural appears with a large number, it is understood to mean individuals: There were an estimated 150,000 troops in Iraq.
In medieval armies the term company referred loosely to the body of men accompanying a lord or knight into the field. As the organization of European armies developed, individual companies were brought together in larger tactical formations and eventually became subdivisions of brigades or regiments.
Per U.S. Army doctrine a typical fire team consists of four soldiers.
But in the 1700s, examples begin to appear in which “troop” is no longer a collective noun, in which “1,000 troops” means 1,000 men.
In the Australian Army, an infantry platoon has thirty-six soldiers organized into three eight-man sections and a twelve-man maneuver support section, with a lieutenant as platoon commander and a sergeant as platoon sergeant, accompanied by a platoon signaller and sometimes a platoon medic (full strength of forty men).
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain).
a division of the Roman army, usually comprising 3000 to 6000 soldiers. a military or semimilitary unit.
Six centuries of eighty men formed a cohort, and ten cohorts made up a legion. Nine of the cohorts were divided into six centuries. The first cohort, which was the most prestigious, consisted of five double-strength centuries.
Introduction. The main battle tank crew has been reduced from five crew members (commander, gunner, loader, driver and co-driver) in World War II (such as Germany's Tiger) to three or four crew members.
Team: Four individual Marines assigned to a specific team (Three team members, plus the team leader). Squad: Three Teams are assigned to a specific squad. Platoon: Three squads are usually assigned to a specific platoon. Company (or Battery): Three platoons are assigned to a Company (sometimes called a battery).
division of platoon
…in an army is the squad, which contains 7 to 14 soldiers and is led by a sergeant. (A slightly larger unit is a section, which consists of 10 to 40 soldiers but is usually used only within headquarters or support organizations.) Three or four squads make up a platoon,…
5 Letters: TROOP.