Company (land forces)

From Citizendium
Jump to navigation Jump to search
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.
This article may be deleted soon.
To oppose or discuss a nomination, please go to CZ:Proposed for deletion and follow the instructions.

For the monthly nomination lists, see
Category:Articles for deletion.


In general military usage, a company is a small army or naval infantry unit. It is usually commanded by a captain (land forces)|captain or major; the latter is especially common in Commonwealth countries and in U.S. special operations forces.

A typical combat arms company has 100-200 personnel at full strength. Combat support and combat service support companies may be of this size, although those composed of highly specialized technical personnel (e.g., medical, intelligence) may have a much smaller number of people.

Combat arms companies are not intended to be able to conduct independent operations for any appreciable time; they have very limited logistics (military)|logistical support. They are typically subordinate to a battalion, or, especially when specialized (e.g., combat engineer, intelligence), to a brigade.

Certain arms of service have different names for a company-sized unit. Cavalry units are called troop (cavalry); the term is not consistently applied to the armored, mechanized, and helicopter-borne successors to horse cavalry.

Company-sized units in artillery are called battery (artillery)|batteries.