Irish military organization

IrishKnight

Can someone explain the hierarchy within the Irish army? That is to say, what makes a section, company etc...

OS119

IrishKnight wrote: »

Can someone explain the hierarchy within the Irish army? That is to say, what makes a section, company etc...

same as everywhere - section, platoon, company, battalion, brigade, division, corps, army.

in administrative terms the Irish Army goes to divisional level in that it has three brigade formations, however its lack of artillery, logistics, air defence, helicopters and armoured battlefield mobility means that only one of those brigades could actually fight while the others would sit on their backsides and go nowhere - and an interesting comparison between a peacetime brigade and a warfighting one is found in Afghanistan: the British force in Helmand is a 'BrigadePlus' but has grown to a manpower of over 9,000 to do the tasks given it, support itself and defend its supply lines, yet somehow the Irish Army tries to maintain the fiction that a manpower of 8,700 can produce three fighting brigades.

its just not credible.

citizen_p

army has about 9000
air corps has 1000
navy has about 1300

Latchy

From memory of serving , when Irish Defence Forces were 15,000 full time ( with roughly same amount FCA ) .

A section of men can be 5 or 6 men .
A platoon can be 12 to 14 men .
3 / 4 companys (comprising of several hundred men) = 1 Battllion .
3 / 4 battallions = 1 Brigrade .

pmg58

You're a fair bit off Latchy, but I'd rather not post actual numbers up unlessI can find them in the public domain, I'll have a bit of a search and see what I can find.

minidazzler

Latchy wrote: »

From memory of serving , when Irish Defence Forces were 15,000 full time ( with roughly same amount FCA ) .

A section of men can be 5 or 6 men .
A platoon can be 12 to 14 men .
3 / 4 companys (comprising of several hundred men) = 1 Battllion .
3 / 4 battallions = 1 Brigrade .

Section is Supposed to be 9 Bodies, 2 JNCO's and 7 men.
Platoon 30 - 3 Sections + Sgt, Lt, Runner.
Company - 3 Platoons and 1 Support Platoon.
Anywhere from 3-6 Companies in a Bn.
3 Battalions in a Brigade.
and we have 3 "Brigades"

I could be wrong here though, it's been over a year since I studied this stuff.

pmg58

Yeah thats very close minidazzler, although a brigade consists of 3 battalions and support units, and of course, the above structure only really refers to the infantry.


And a radioman in the Pl HQ as well.

minidazzler

pmg58 wrote: »

Yeah thats very close minidazzler, although a brigade consists of 3 battalions and support units, and of course, the above structure only really refers to the infantry.


And a radioman in the Pl HQ as well.

Yeah, I have always referred to the Radioman as Runner. Don't know why, but just can't get out of the Habit.

I originally saw this on military.ie around a year and a half ago, so it should be OK, but it's down to how the Mods feel about it being posted.

pmg58

Theres a radioman and a runner in it, i.e. 31 bodies.

Well if it was up on military.ie it should be ok I suppose?

Latchy

Being a lot of re structuring since I served .;)

The army in late 70s early 80s due to border Lebanon and demand for other duties was over stretched, so the companys,battallions and brigades on paper were not always making the numbers up as required in textbook .

pmg58

As far as I know, sizes os sections, companies etc have actually reduced, but I'm sure theres plenty here who will know better than me.

And I don't think the situation with units not matching up with the structure listed in the manual has changed too much tbh.

Latchy

Thing is back in the late 70s ,the PDF was just under 15,000 full time members .The FCA was approx 11,000 to .Now I think (and may get figures wrong and it's no longer refered to as PDF/FCA ) that has being reduced to under 7000 full time members .Not so much an army to be honest and very much a defence force .

pmg58

I think the PDF currently has 10,600, with 8,600 being in the Army.

As for the RDF, its supposed to be about 12,000, including integrated personnel, or slightly over 9,000 non-integrated, but the actual numbers really dont resemble these figures at all.

arybvtcw0eolkf

minidazzler wrote: »

I originally saw this on military.ie around a year and a half ago, so it should be OK, but it's down to how the Mods feel about it being posted.

You could nearly could us on both hands, work away we're hardly likely the frighten the life out of too many of our intending invaders!.

.

Craigsy

Alessandro Jealous Vigilance wrote: »

You could nearly could us on both hands, work away we're hardly likely the frighten the life out of too many of our intending invaders!.

.

Yeah, note to self- When invading a country, check boards.ie for vital intelligence:D

Fishtits

I'm gone nearly 20 years, pre re-organisation:

Back then:~

Section = ~ 10
Platoon = 6 x sections = 60
Company = 3 x Platoons = 180

Battalion = 4 Companies = 720

All above are 'ish, it depended on the individual make up.

A Batt may have been, A Coy, B Coy, C Coy plus Sigs, Engs, S&T, HQ, Recce, and whatever else was needed.

Establishment depended on Role.

All different now of course...