    in military terminology, a squad is a small sub-unit or minor unit led by a non-commissioned officer (nco) that is subordinate to an infantry platoon. in countries following the british army tradition (australian army, canadian army, and others), this organization is referred to as a section. in most armies, a squad consists of eight to fourteen soldiers, and may be further subdivided into fireteams. the equivalent to squad is the gruppe, a sub-unit of 8 to 12 soldier, in the german bundeswehr, austrian bundesheer and swiss army. ; presentation: standard nato symbol â squad (7 or 8 â 12 soldiers) â in nato armed forces: *two single dots (ââ&nbsp; squad in general); respectively *a lying rectangle with two dots above (squad as single sub-unit) on military maps ==organization== ===united states=== in the united states army, a squad is composed of two fireteams of four soldiers each, as well as a squad leader who is a staff sergeant. a military police squad is composed of three teams of three. in the united states marine corps, a squad is typically composed of three fireteams of four marines and a squad leader who is typically a sergeant or corporal. in the us air force security forces a squad is made up of three fire teams of four members each led by a senior airman or staff sergeant and either a staff sergeant or tech sergeant squad leader. ===ussr=== in the soviet armed forces a motorised rifle squad was mounted in either a btr armoured personnel carrier or bmp infantry fighting vehicle, with the former being more numerous by the late 1980s. btr rifle squads consisted of a squad leader/btr commander, senior rifleman/assistant squad leader, a machine gunner armed with an rpk-74, a grenadier armed with an rpg-7, a rifleman/assistant grenadier, a rifleman/medic, a rifleman, a btr driver/mechanic and a btr machine gunner. bmp rifle squads consisted of a squad leader/bmp commander, assistant squad leader/bmp gunner, 
Military_units_and_formations_by_size