Unit (military)

A unit in the context of a military organization is a group of soldiers, with specified equipment, under a specific chain of command. A unit generally has one commander, the Commanding Officer, and is composed of sub-units.

All but the very smallest have a headquarters organization, which will contain both staff for planning and controlling operations, and often combat support and combat service support sub-units to support the main role. Some units may have specialized combat arms units under the direct control of the commander, such as artillery.

Units in land forces

Name	Personnel	NATO command rank	U.S. command rank
fire team	3-5	OR-4 to OR-5	E-4 to E-5
squad (land forces)	10-13	OR-4 to OR-6	E-6 to E-7
platoon (land forces)	20-40	OF-1	O-1
company (land forces)/troop/battery (military unit)	100-200	OF-3 to OF-4	O-3 to O-4
battalion/squadron (land forces)/squadron (air forces)	500-1000	OF-5	O-5
regiment/group (land forces)/group (air forces)/brigade	3000-5000	OF-6 to OF-7	O-6
division	10000-25000	OF-8	O-8
corps	30000-75000	OF-8	O-8 to O-9
field army	100000-300000	OF-9	O-9 to O-10

Naval forces

Due to variation in ship sizes and types, it is more difficult to assign numbers.

Administrative

• Division (naval forces)
• Squadron (naval forces)
• Flotilla
• Fleet

Tactical

• Task unit
• Task group
• Task force

Air Forces

• Section
• Flight
• Squadron (air forces)
• Group (air forces)/Wing (some nations' wings contain groups, and other nations groups are larger than wings)
• Air Division
• Numbered Air Force