Organisation
Standard Infantry
The IFC’s military traditions and doctrine come from NATO aligned countries with the Commonwealth Army particularly taking after the US with the structure of its companies, battalions, brigades and divisions. However, it’s infantry squads take influence from a wider variety of countries and takes more after UK commonwealth countries, while still taking pointers from the US army.
There are two main templates for squads. There is an eight-person squad and a ten-person squad. The ten-person squads are the preferred however generally.
Ten person squads therefore are the standard squad of the IFC army used in motorised, mechanised, and armoured infantry platoons.
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The Squad leader, Squad 2IC and the riflemen are all armed with standard R-10 bullpup assault rifles chamber for 6.5mm IFC rounds. The Grenadiers are also equipped with R-10 rifles which also have a under barrel grenade launcher. Then the Marksmen has a R-10P, the marksmen variant with a longer barrel and a variable zoom optic is also provided for them.
The LMG gunners however are given a M25 LMG. Produced by FN it also fires the 6.5 IFC rounds used by the rest of the squad’s weapons. It has improved reliability over the FN Minimi and is better liked than it.
The A section is intended to be the fire team while the B section is meant to act as the assault team. With the A section featuring better long ranged fire power while the B section has better close ranged fire power.
The inclusions of lance corporals as the grenadiers is intended to improve squad organisation with certain section command duties able to be relocated to them if the section leader is busy. Or in case they are killed. But for the most part they just act as senior squad members.
Two NLAWs are also available to the squad and are contained in their vehicle for use when they need them.
This reorganisation is taking time to roll out and in 2028, some formations have received the extra troops for the increased squad size but have not yet gotten the NCO promotions, creating an odd mix. Though as a general rule, things sticking to paper is not always going to be the case.
Ritter Schützen
Though there are other squad organisations, for example the light power armour armoured infantry units of Ritter Schützen (Knight Riflemen) have an eight-person squad that differs from the IFC standards for squads of that size, inheriting some of their German lineage.
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All power armour troops are Private First Class at least and the A section contains a AT gunner rather than the usual rifleman for squads of this size in the IFC. That AT gunner is equipped with either a Carl Gustav, a Panzerfaust 3, or a Pila ATGM launcher.
Equipment
Ritter Schützen
The suits used by the Ritter Schützen are standard Mark 3L suits. These suits are some of the lightest power armour available other than the Mark 3LA suits for airborne power armour troops. It’s also rather small and sleek when compared to Medium and Heavy suits, allowing for ease of mobility and allowing a squad of eight to fit comfortably into a Panther or Crusader.
The Mark 3L is fully hermetically sealed, with the helmet featuring air filters and a small cooling system contained in the system unit on the suit’s rear, to keep the wearer safe against NBC threats but also somewhat comfortable.
The helmet also contains built in image intensifiers for night-time operations. They can also be replaced by thermal optics as well though this does unbalance the helmet a little.
Composite plates are located around the torso, arms and legs directly onto the exoskeleton with Kevlar reinforced fabrics and rubber covering the areas not covered by the plates. The helmet is also fully armoured with the eye pieces made of bullet proof glass. The plates however are rather light and thin when compared to heavier power armour models. However, it is still rather strong and is able to stop 6.5mm IFC AP rounds fired from a R-10 rifle, giving a significant level of protection to the troops wearing it.
The weight of the armour takes up most of the force generated by the actual powered exoskeleton core of the suit, which therefore means that the extra strength given to the user is somewhat marginal when compared heavier suits. This also means that soldiers with this armour cannot wield the same sort of heavy weapons as soldiers with heavier armour patterns can. Though it does still allow them to use the full auto function on the AS-30 shotgun to it’s full potential and also allows for the use of the FN MAG and the M-29 AR as a LMGs rather than GPMGs.
The requirement to keep the suit charged, training time and the cost of the suits however does mean that the Ritter Schützen will stay as a rare formation like it’s other power armour brethren.
Standard Infantry
The standard infantrymen in the IFC army have a bucket load of equipment that soldiers from twenty years ago could only dream of.
Firstly, riflemen are equipped with the R-10 assault rifle as standard with high grade optics.
The R-10 Rifle is the standard issue assault rifle of the IFC armed forces. This was developed by H&K and somewhat resembles a XM-8 or G-36 crossed with a Tavor or SA80, but with a picatinny rail system for sights and using a 6.5mm round. The gun also has several internal features to reduce recoil and has a 2 round hyper burst as well as being a bullpup design. There are several variants of this rifle including the R-10C, a carbine variant, R-10P, a long-barrelled marksmen variant and the R-10M, a variant adapted for use in vacuum and for use by marines.
Secondly, passive exoskeletons are being rolled out to troops which help balance the loads they carry, reducing strain and fatigue on the wearer as well as allowing them to carry a bit more.
Thirdly, new body armour and helmets are a large jump over previous examples, being both lighter while also providing greater protection, providing XSAPI levels of protection.
And fourthly, night vision in the form of the latest gen image intensifier goggles have become standard issue for all soldiers. Greatly improving night fighting capabilities of standard units.
This makes IFC riflemen rather formidable when combined with their training and experienced officers.