This is Jocko podcast number 473 with Echo Charles and me Jocco Willink. Good evening, Echo.

Good evening. The mission of the rifle squad is to locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire maneuver, or repel the enemy's assault by fire and close combat.

The Marine Corps Rifle Squad is the fundamental maneuver unit of the Marine Corps infantry.

It is organized to provide multiple fire units and mutually supporting combined arms effects on the battlefield.

Time and again, the tide of a battle has been changed through a squad leader's decisive employment of their squad.

Mission Tactics is a fundamental enabler of maneuver warfare.

Mission Tactics is a method of command which relays commander's intent to subordinate leaders

and empowers them to take initiative on a dynamic battlefield in order to achieve that intent in a manner best-fitting the realities facing the subordinate leader.

Rifle squad leaders are the point at which mission tactics are actually employed in the operational environment.

They must be able to effectively and efficiently use the tools and techniques available to them in order to generate the desired commander's intent.

To that end, the Marine Corps has developed small unit tactics and techniques which have proven effective for small unit leaders in past wars and operations to serve as a template to guide squad leaders as they face new and

challenging environments.

A foundational aspect of Marine Corps leadership is the small unit leader's ability to

understand the fundamentals of the profession of arms and confidently apply them in innovative

ways.

This ability is the core enabler of mission tactics and maneuver warfare.

Marine Corps Docturnal Publication 1, warfighting defines maneuver warfare as, quote,

a warfighting philosophy that seeks to shatter the enemy's cohesion

through a variety of rapid, focused, and unexpected actions,

which create a turbulent and rapidly deteriorating situation

with which the enemy cannot cope.

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