OOB TOE Q&A

[DougPhresh]

I thought I'd open a thread so that there'd be a common pool of questions and observations about the TOE and OOB.

Dutch

- Dutch Forward Observer Teams do not have a radio.

- When split, half of a Dutch section is without a radio link to the rest of the squad or higher HQ.

- When purchased Recce Fennecks have 2 crew and 1 dismount, when they come as part of a romation they have 1 crew and 2 dismounts.

USMC

- I'd like to know the proper loading of infantry into AAVs. Is it one platoon per AAV? A Marine squad has 13 men but an AAV has 25 seats, so how do I load a platoon or company?

[domfluff]

For the USMC, I think it varies in practice with the mission, but something like this should be correct:

(From MCTP 3-10C, Employment of Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAVs) )

 

[domfluff]

1 hour ago, DougPhresh said:

Dutch

- Dutch Forward Observer Teams do not have a radio.

- When purchased Recce Fennecks have 2 crew and 1 dismount, when they come as part of a romation they have 1 crew and 2 dismounts.

I have no experience of the Dutch TO&E, but those sound like problems to me. Obviously Forward Observers can use vehicle radios, but you'd imagine they'd have man portable ones.
 

1 hour ago, DougPhresh said:

Dutch

- When split, half of a Dutch section is without a radio link to the rest of the squad or higher HQ.

That might not be a problem, really. Again, I don't have a source on Dutch TO&E, and it would be surprising for a modern force, but certainly not without precedence.

[domfluff]

Some more USMC detail from the manual:

Boat Teams

Serials are further broken down into boat teams. These are tactical divisions of the LF elements within that serial. Normally serials are assigned to landing craft or groups of landing craft. Boat teams are the tactical units or teams that are assigned to a particular landing craft; therefore, serials can have several boat teams or just one, depending on the number or capacity of the landing craft. The serial designator of a boat team is a number followed by a dash and another number (e.g., 1-1, 1-2, 1-3). The first digit indicates the wave number and the second indicates the position in the wave. The AAV’s position number indicates the vehicle farthest to the left facing the beach or the first craft in a column. The notional tactical organization in table 3-3 largely composed of 1st Squad, is labeled Boat Team 1-1, thus being the left most vehicle of the first wave. Boat teams are made up of boat spaces that are variables, which account for the space and weight factor of personnel/equipment being assigned to a landing craft or amphibious vehicle. These spaces are based on the requirements of individual equipment (240 pounds occupying 13.5 cubic feet of space).



And:

The AA platoon is the basic building block for task organization. Generally, no more than 18 Marines should be assigned to any one vehicle since more than this number requires precise staging and seating arrangements that can degrade the ability of embarked personnel to respond to tactical situations. No more than 21 Marines should be contemplated for ship-to-shore movement. The established method of task organization is one AA section for each rifle platoon and one AA section for support missions. These support missions include the command AAV used by the infantry company commander and the AA platoon commander, logistic AAV, 60- millimeter mortar section, and engineer vehicle to provide mobility for any other assets attached to the company by higher headquarters.


In practice? I suspect the real answer is to have one squad to each vehicle, and to cram in the supporting weapons where you can.

 

Edited December 6, 2018 by domfluff

[DougPhresh]

I'll try it out! Thanks for finding the pam on the AAV, I was scratching my head.

Hard to be an air controller without a radio.

 

[domfluff]

I dunno, vigorous waving could do it

[akd]

Seems to be just the FAC team from the Specialists menu.  All other Dutch FOs have radios. 

But this has no effect on their ability to act as a spotter.

On the Fenneks, the way individual vehicle purchases are set up, they cannot have both a crew and a passenger team, so the individual purchase Fenneks have 2x crew to be fully functional when purchased by player or AI.

Edited December 6, 2018 by akd

[DougPhresh]

I'm just wondering if there is a general overview of what units should have manpack and what units should have handheld radios.

I'm thinking by '08 radios were a bit more prolific than shown.

In the Dutch Ind Light Inf Co, the "B" Team Assistant Section Leaders do not have a radio, which leaves the team out of comms when dismounted. The "A" team has the Section Leaders handheld radio, which leads me the believe that the "B" team would have the same.