{{Short description|Military Unit}} {{distinguish|Regimental combat team|Brigade combat team}} A '''combat team''' is temporary grouping of military organizations of differing types to accomplish a defined mission or objective.<ref>{{cite web |title=Combat Team |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/combat%20team |website=Merriam-Webster Dictionary |publisher=Merriam-Webster |access-date=6 March 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Combat team |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/combat-team |website=Dictionary.com |access-date=6 March 2021}}</ref> Usage varies between commonwealth nations, where the term applies to a sub-unit level grouping, and the United States, where the term is found at unit and formation levels.
==Commonwealth Armies' Combat Teams== {| class="floatright" style="border:1px solid black; background:white;float: right;text-align: center" cellpadding="3" |- ! NATO Map Symbols |- | 80px<br/>80px |- | Infantry Combat Team<ref>{{cite book |title=B-GL-321-006/FP-001 Combat Team Operations (Interim) |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/24067652/B-GL-321-006-Combat-Team-Operations-Interim-2003 |date=28 Oct 2003 |publisher=Canadian Armed Forces |location=Ottawa}}</ref> |- | 80px<br/>80px |- | Armoured Combat Team<ref>{{cite book |title=B-GL-321-006/FP-001 Combat Team Operations (Interim) |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/24067652/B-GL-321-006-Combat-Team-Operations-Interim-2003 |date=28 Oct 2003 |publisher=Canadian Armed Forces |location=Ottawa}}</ref> |- | 80px<br/>80px |- | Square Combat Team<ref>{{cite book |title=APP-6C Joint Military Symbology |date=May 2011 |publisher=NATO |pages=3-10, 3-50 - 3-51 |url=http://armawiki.zumorc.de/files/NATO/APP-6(C).pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150921231042/http://armawiki.zumorc.de/files/NATO/APP-6(C).pdf |archive-date=2015-09-21 }}</ref> |}
In commonwealth nations combat team is a temporary combined-arms grouping of based on a combat sub-unit (an infantry or armoured sub-unit) with attached supporting arms.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Australian Army: An Aide Memoire|publisher=Commonwealth of Australia|page=13&55|url=http://www.army.gov.au/~/media/Content/Our%20future/Publications/Key/Aide%20memoire/Aide%20Memoire.pdf|access-date=20 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150329210408/http://www.army.gov.au/~/media/Content/Our%20future/Publications/Key/Aide%20memoire/Aide%20Memoire.pdf|archive-date=29 March 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> In Canadian Army doctrine, a combat team is a sub-unit grouping based on an infantry company or a tank squadron with elements of the other arm attached as well as other supporting elements such as combat engineers and artillery observers. A '''square combat team''' is the combination of both an infantry company and an armoured squadron with supporting elements attached.<ref>{{cite book |title=B-GL-321-006/FP-001 Combat Team Operations (Interim) |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/24067652/B-GL-321-006-Combat-Team-Operations-Interim-2003 |date=28 Oct 2003 |publisher=Canadian Armed Forces |location=Ottawa}}</ref><ref>Michaud, Karl A. R. [https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a507693.pdf "Changing the Status Quo: The Canadian Forces would be Better Postured to Meet the Current and Future Strategic Requirements by Replacing the Conventional Land Forces (Army) with Lightly Equipped Special Operating Forces (SOF)."] Command and Staff College, Marine Corps University, 2006. pg vi (pg 31/50)</ref> The British Army uses the term "combat team" interchangeably with "company group" or "task group."<ref>{{cite web |title=Formations |url=http://www.armedforces.co.uk/army/listings/l0014.html |website=The British Army |access-date=28 February 2021}}</ref> [[File:Canadian Combat Team Live Fire Wainwright.jpg|thumb|center|upright=2.5|A combat team comprising infantry of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and tanks of the Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) train at the Canadian Manoeuvre Training Center, Wainwright]]
==US Army and Marine Combat Teams== {| class="floatright" style="border:1px solid black; background:white;float: right;text-align: center" cellpadding="3" |- ! NATO Map Symbols |- | 80px<br/>80px |- | Armoured Battalion Combat Team<ref>{{cite book |title=FM 21-30 Military Symbols |date=June 1965 |publisher=US Army |location=Washington, DC |page=II-5}}</ref> |- | 80px<br/>80px |- | Infantry Regimental Combat Team<ref>{{cite book |title=FM 21-30 Military Symbols |date=June 1965 |publisher=US Army |location=Washington, DC |page=II-4}}</ref> |- | 80px<br/>80px |- | Armoured Regimental Combat Team<ref>{{cite book |title=FM 21-30 Military Symbols |date=June 1965 |publisher=US Army |location=Washington, DC |page=II-4}}</ref> |- | 80px<br/>80px |- | Armoured Brigade Combat Team<ref>{{cite book |title=ADRP 1-02 Terms and Military Symbols |date=December 2015 |publisher=US Army |location=Washington, DC |pages=4-3, 4-33 - 4-34}}</ref> |- | 80px<br/>80px |- | Infantry Brigade Combat Team<ref>{{cite book |title=ADRP 1-02 Terms and Military Symbols |date=December 2015 |publisher=US Army |location=Washington, DC |pages=4-4, 4-33 - 4-34}}</ref> |- | 80px<br/>80px |- | Stryker Brigade Combat Team<ref>{{cite book |title=APP-6C Joint Military Symbology |date=May 2011 |publisher=NATO |pages=3-9, 3-14, 3-49 - 3-51 |url=http://armawiki.zumorc.de/files/NATO/APP-6(C).pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150921231042/http://armawiki.zumorc.de/files/NATO/APP-6(C).pdf |archive-date=2015-09-21 }}</ref> |}
In US Armed Forces usage, "combat team" is not defined as a term by itself but it is found in inside larger labels for combined arms formations such as regimental combat team and brigade combat team. US Army doctrine has at least once referenced an armoured battalion combat team.<ref>{{cite book |title=FM 21-30 Military Symbols |date=June 1965 |publisher=US Army |location=Washington, DC |page=II-5}}</ref>
As a result of the US Army transforming to triangular divisions between 1940 and 1942,<ref>[http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/060/60-14-1/cmhPub_60-14-1.pdf army.mil] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301211444/http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/060/60-14-1/cmhPub_60-14-1.pdf |date=2014-03-01 }} ''Wilson, John B. Maneuver and Firepower: The Evolution of Divisions and Separate Brigades'' (CMH Pub 60-14-1). Army Lineage Series. Washington: Center of Military History: 272-276|page=135</ref> infantry brigades were replaced by infantry regiments.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McGrath |first1=John J. |title=The Brigade: A History. Its Organization and Employment in the US Army |date=June 2004 |publisher=Combat Studies Institute Press |location=Fort Leavenworth, Kansas |url=https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/combat-studies-institute/csi-books/Brigade-AHistory.pdf|page=54}}</ref> Through the Second World War, the US Army would form Regimental Combat Teams, consisting of an infantry regiment with additional attached combat and support elements tailored to a specific mission, whenever there was a requirement for an independent infantry formation smaller than division.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McGrath |first1=John J. |title=The Brigade: A History. Its Organization and Employment in the US Army |date=June 2004 |publisher=Combat Studies Institute Press |location=Fort Leavenworth, Kansas |url=https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/combat-studies-institute/csi-books/Brigade-AHistory.pdf|pages=54–55}}</ref> By the end of the Second World War, infantry regiments that were not part of a division and been reorganized as regimental combat teams, and many division commanders had re-organized their infantry regiments as regimental combat teams.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McGrath |first1=John J. |title=The Brigade: A History. Its Organization and Employment in the US Army |date=June 2004 |publisher=Combat Studies Institute Press |location=Fort Leavenworth, Kansas |url=https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/combat-studies-institute/csi-books/Brigade-AHistory.pdf|pages=54–55}}</ref> The regimental combat team continued to be used by the US Army through the Korean War and until the adoption of the pentomic division in 1957.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McGrath |first1=John J. |title=The Brigade: A History. Its Organization and Employment in the US Army |date=June 2004 |publisher=Combat Studies Institute Press |location=Fort Leavenworth, Kansas |url=https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/combat-studies-institute/csi-books/Brigade-AHistory.pdf|pages=55–56}}</ref>
The United States Marine Corps also used the regimental combat team structure through the Second World War but it referred to these as brigades, and it was only in the 1990s that reinforced USMC regiments became known as regimental combat teams.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McGrath |first1=John J. |title=The Brigade: A History. Its Organization and Employment in the US Army |date=June 2004 |publisher=Combat Studies Institute Press |location=Fort Leavenworth, Kansas |url=https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/combat-studies-institute/csi-books/Brigade-AHistory.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180216085009/http://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/combat-studies-institute/csi-books/Brigade-AHistory.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 16, 2018|pages=55, 57}}</ref>
The US Army defines a brigade combat team as a "combined arms organization consisting of a brigade headquarters, at least two maneuver battalions, and necessary supporting functional capabilities."<ref>{{cite book |title=ADRP 1-02 Terms and Military Symbols |date=December 2015 |publisher=US Army |location=Washington, DC |pages=1–11}}</ref> In 2003, almost all US Army manoeuvre brigades were reorganized as brigade combat teams.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McGrath |first1=John J. |title=The Brigade: A History. Its Organization and Employment in the US Army |date=June 2004 |publisher=Combat Studies Institute Press |location=Fort Leavenworth, Kansas |url=https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/combat-studies-institute/csi-books/Brigade-AHistory.pdf|page=110}}</ref> In Commonwealth nations, the term brigade group is generally used to describe a similar organization.
[[File:NTC Rotation 15-09 starts off with a bang 150822-Z-ZJ128-002.jpg|thumb|none|upright=1.35|Infantry of 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team (CBCT) train at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwG-xnSM80g CANADIAN ARMY PODCAST - S1E7 - Combat Team Commander's Course]
Category:Military units and formations by size Category:Ad hoc units and formations