The composition of companies and battalions start to incorporate organic support (either direct combat or otherwise) assets within their order of battle.  Company officers such as Captains tend to be the lowest level officer that Lt. Colonels engage with on a regular basis.  An assortment of specialty platoons start to appear in the company hierarchy, depending on the specific task or mission a company is appointed.  For example signals platoon start to appear in mechanized infantry companies due to their large range, requiring a signals platoon to keep communications connected with adjacent unis and superior command units by deploying in appropriate areas alongside their company.

Company

Motorized Infantry Company; Command Platoon, 3x Rifle Platoon, Mortar Platoon, Heavy Weapons Platoon, a medical platoon with an organic field aid post unit (attached from battalion).  Included are also various support teams and squads such as Pathfinder section and MANPADS teams.

The company unit archetype merges platoons under the control of a specialized command unit, usually consisting of one or two understrength squads.   This command platoon is in charge of relaying specific orders from the battalion to their appropriate ground lieutenants, at times through their signals platoon.  The tactical decisions of a company commander are more in line of maintainining a battle line whilst keeping contact with sister companies, leaving tactical engagements to platoon commanders.  Of course the company commander must be tactically aware of his situation and deploy units appropriately, such as weapons platoons to aid rifle platoons and to assure the company does not get flanked or outmaneuvered. 

The organization of unit inter-mixing is also at times influenced by each countries respective doctrine and at times by the situation on the ground, usually by a Captain. For example lets take the organization of a weapons platoons and rifle platoons vs rifle platoons with organic heavy weapons squad.  The first decision streamlines the tactical decisions for a company captain in terms of deploying heavy weapons in his respective area of operation.  The second decision relies on the skill, training, and initiative of junior officers in charge of platoons to efficiently deploy their respective weapons squad in an efficient manner whilst maintaining lines of supply to battalion logistics, communicating with sister platoons to deny friendly-fire, reduce excessive overlapping firepower, and minimizing the time assets are grouped in proximity to one another.  This puts a strain on platoon-level junior officers but gives them a great deal of freedom in terms of tactical advantage, allowing them to literally hand-pick locations to deploy certain weapon teams.

Mechanized infantry company with a command platoon, signals platoon, light engineering support platoon, armored recon platoon and 3 mechanized infantry platoons with organic heavy weapons support (Light Armored Vehicles).

Armor company consisting of three armor platoons and a  single Self-Propelled Anti-Air Platoon

Organization of armored units are different, the decisions of composition relies solely on the Captain, or even Major or Colonel for some nations, and others its hard-dictated by doctrine.  When it comes to armor the rules change a bit.  For example an armor company that has four platoons.  Three of the four platoons are comprised of four main battle tanks.  The final platoon is composed of self-propelled anti-air armor making it a SPAA platoon.  The alternative organizational structure would be to have four platoons with three tanks and one SPAA each.  Both ways of organization have their uses depending on the situation.

An armor company with four armor platoons with organic self-propelled anti-air capability.

A armor company with three armor platoons and a single SPAA platoon offers greater focus in operational warfare.  The SPAA platoon sets up on hilltops or other appropriate terrain and vectors to defend the three armor platoons in a tiny umbrella against cruise missiles, helicopters and close-air support jets.  Although a concentration of anti-air does increase the effectiveness of the area of covered it also attracts the attention of enemy air defense suppression techniques (such as counter-artillery or stealth bombing run).   The alternative method of organization (by having three MBTs and one SPAA per platoon) is more focused on tactical engagements giving ground commanders the ability to directly engage lurking helicopters with the SPAA unit or support tank operations in infantry suppression through hull-down positions.  Both have their drawbacks.  The added bonus of extending a thin secondary anti-air defense also comes into play, however the anti-air cover is very weak, reliant on a single weapon system at times and having very little effective but partial area dissuasion. 



A company can go by other names depending on its task.  A company can be labelled a battery if it houses anti-air or artillery weaponry.  It can also be called a troop or a squadron if its based on mobility such as the old cavalry units.  They tend to be the same size in terms of armor platoons but have their variances based on their specialty.  There are diagrams of an artillery battery, anti-air battery, and engineering company for comparison to the other two companies presented so far (motorized infantry and mechanized infantry company).  Certain units have to reach company strength before being reaching their full potential.  Here are a selection of highlighted companies.



Artillery Battery:

Artillery battery with ballistic missile launchers, multiple missile launchers and three calibers of cannon artillery (two self-propelled).  Security and logistical detachments.  Units will rarely, if ever, be this intermixed with artillery battalions specialized in several roles such as Field, Medium, Heavy, Specialized (Rocket, AA, etc.) Batteries.

This artillery battery incorporates one platoon of every possible field artillery, from long-range ballistics, short, medium and long range cannon artillery and multiple rocket artillery;  used only to illustrate the different types of organizations for such weapon artillery systems.  In reality an artillery battery will be composed of one or two pieces of artillery of similar technology (missile, cannon, etc.)  and are rarely intermixed at the level presented; the reason is logistical convinence at the battalion and brigade level.  For example long-range ballistic artillery batteries are always homogenous and would never carry smaller caliber cannons or other tactical/operational artillery.  Cannon artillery units however may be comprised of both self-propelled artillery and towed artillery of differing caliber.  Missile artillery batteries may or may not be homogenous depending on their role in battle.


Anti-Air Battery:

An all inclusive air area defense company; long-range, medium-range and short-range anti-air rocket with a self-propelled anti-air platoon.  In this case commanded by a Major due to its technical requirements and importance on the battlefield.

An Anti-Air Area Defense Battery is organized differently from nation to nation.  This battery is an all inclusive anti-air system, with a long, medium, and short range anti-air missile systems including self-propelled anti-air vehicles.   Some nations group anti-air assets based on range and therefore units with long range capability will be segregated from their medium range units and so on.  The anti-air unit before you however is designed to be deployed to protect national interests or critical military assets such as key bases or facilities.  The long-range high-altitude anti-air missile battery will force air units to fly lower to the ground which will have to contest with the medium-range anti-air batteries set up.  The contingent of MANPADS team and self-propelled anti-air armor platoon, being short-range anti-air systems, are designed to protect the long and medium-range anti-air batteries against any Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses.


Engineering Company

Engineering company with bridging equipment including a special boats platoon for assistance.  Other capabilities include a vehicle recovery platoon, bomb disposal team, and a path clearing unit.

The engineering unit at display here is mostly focused on mobile bridging and pontoon deployments.  There is even a small boats team attached to aid in bridge construction and pontoon movements as well as providing security and patrolling once construction is finished.  The vehicle recovery platoon is used to haul the expensive multi-million dollar equipment (such as tanks) back home after engagements if they are too damaged to be moved on their own strength.   The path clearing unit is a mobile tactical excavation unit designed to dig trenches, level ground, drill holes, construct roads & air strips,  remove obstacles, clear mines and other military infrastructure projects in a combat situation.  It usually composes of vehicles that can excavate, cut down lumber, be able to haul masses of material and other construction projects.  The final distinctive unit is the explosive ordnance disposal team which is composed of a command squad, bomb removal squad, a bomb defusing vehicle, and a canine unit.


The Battalion

The Battalion is composed of multiple companies under the direct command a specialized and highly administrative company called the Headquarters and Support Company.  H&S Companies are the central command and logistical support of all combat companies within the battalion.  They are the administrative head brigade or regimental commanders communicate with.  The battalion is the smallest unit capable of independent action, capable of being deployed independently with minor organic attachments or liaisons.  Thanks to H&S Company, battalions will have the full gambit of support from financial clerks, catering, training NCOs, military police, transportation, intelligence officers, and field workshops.  Other units such as snipers, MANPADS teams, specialized weapons team and medics will be almost always be available at the Battalion level and can be detached and re-attached to subordinate companies based on their missions or objectives.  Usually Battalions are homogenous, an infantry battalion will be solely made up of various infantry companies, H&S company, and a combat support company (such as armor company or anti-air area defense company).  The same is said about armor battalions, artillery battalions and so forth.  The trend of homogenous battalions seem to be wanning in the modern battlefield as more and more nations begin to deploy battalions that incorporate a high level of combined arms assets to allow for a better militaristic synergy between units.  An example is Urban Combat Battalions which comprise of tanks, IFVs, APC, helicopters, intelligence, artillery, and infantry combined into one.   Nearly all infantry battalions consist of IFV or armor, making them armored infantry, and will almost always have logistical platoon, anti-air defenses, artillery assets, an armor company,  and engineering equipment making them completely independent in combat.

British variant of a Headquarters and Support Company.  Units include: Battalion Command platoon, Company command platoon, intelligence/counter intelligence unit, military police attachment with canine unit, medical aid post, quartermasters unit, signals platoon, motor transport platoon, catering unit, administration office, training unit and sniper section.  H&S company platoon assets vary in size depending on the number of companies that fall under its responsibility.

Outsourcing

Some nations have outsourced logistical aspects such as mess hall/kitchen/catering service to the private sector.  The private sector usually employs locals which are much cheaper than full-benefit covered soldiers.  Other services such as shipping, base shops, financial services and other related fields can be operated at a cheaper cost through the private sector, especially in Western nations.  This has allowed units to remain slimmer in terms of manpower.  The cost is, of course, the loss of control of those fields.  Outsourced labor may be security screened but still cannot retain the level of clearance a volunteer soldier can achieve.   Private military contractors use both domestic and local assets to try to achieve a cheap cost of operations. 

Few nations use private military contractors (or mercenaries) in direct combat.  The proxy conflicts of the cold war in Africa saw the use of mercenaries extensively.  So did the Second Gulf War (Iraq War) in which private military contractors were used for logistical supply line haulage, tel-communication nodes, mess hall service, postal and package delivery, and so on.


Other nations such as China, Russia, North Korea, Syria, Israel, and other select few maintain a homogenous, military exclusive structure.  Either because the operating cost for these nations is already cheap (or manpower is in excess) or because private military contractors are seen as a vector of potential enemy infiltration.