Military units, number of soldiers, commanders and troop formations

Different armed forces of the world have different ways of grouping their military personnel and have various ways of formation and assembly of troops too. A platoon consisting of a certain number of soldiers may vary in the total number of soldiers in a platoon of a different army of another nation. In short, each country has its own unique armed forces. The given numbers in the table below has a range of values representing the vast majority of the numbers of military members/soldiers for a given military unit of most armed forces of most militaries of countries and nations in the world.


Military unit --- Number of Soldiers ------- Commander

Squad ----------- 8 – 13 ------------------- Squad Leader
Platoon --------- 26 – 55 ------------------ Platoon Leader
Company --------- 80 – 225 ----------------- Captain/Major
Battalion ------- 300 – 1,300 -------------- Lieutenant Col/Colonel
Regiment -------- 3,000 – 5,000 ------------ Lt Col/Col/Brig Gen
Division -------- 10,000 – 15,000 ---------- Major General
Corps ----------- 20,000 – 45,000 ---------- Lieutenant General
Field army ------ 80,000 – 200,000 --------- General
Army group ------ 400,000 – 1,000,000 ------ Field Marshal
Army Region ----- 1,000,000 – 3,000,000 ---- Field Marshal
Army theater ---- 3,000,000 – 10,000,000 --- Field Marshal


The figures below are just examples and illustrations of the formations of military units. The basic unit in these example drawings is the squad. Then 4 squads make up a platoon, 4 platoons form into a company, 4 companies into a battalion and so on, using 4 as a common factor in the formations. The main purpose of these drawings is to show the reader the big picture of how military formations look like for a given way of grouping soldiers and troops.