One of the greatest challenges for today’s Army, according to Maj. Gen. Bob Brown, commanding general, U.S. Army Maneuver Center for Excellence and Fort Benning, Ga., is to improve the efficiency of the military’s smallest unit: the squad."We wanted to know: where is the fight too fair?" Brown said. "It’s at the lowest levels that present the biggest challenge. The squad is where it is too fair a fight."The squad is also, Brown added, the level where most Army casualties occur.Although changing in composition throughout the years, the squad now has nine soldiers, including a squad leader. From years of trial-and-error, the Army found that any squad larger than a nine-person unit risked losing maneuverability as well as coordination and control capabilities. And squads smaller than nine lost crucial lethality and robustness, even with increased technology."That is the thing we’ve spent the most time studying," Brown said about squad size. "We know we cannot go below nine because you need to be able to fight and move. And one casualty makes a huge difference. It’s nine and we’re staying on nine. Nine’s the right number."The squad is made up of two teams of four, each with a grenade launcher and automatic rifle – however, snipers, medium machine guns, and other specialized weapons can be attached or substituted as needed.According to Brown, the biggest problem the squad faces now is that it is too often reactive in relation to the enemy rather than proactive."Seventy five to 80 percent of the time we are reacting to the enemy – we can do better than that," he said. "It’s never going to be perfect but wouldn’t it be better if only 30 percent of the time we were reacting instead of 80 percent of the time?"In order to achieve this level, the Army is improving leadership, organization, training, material and education at the squad level, Brown said.In order to increase the performance of the squad, he added, the Army must improve the efficacy of the individual soldier, most importantly by focusing on "smart power," which includes moral-ethical decision-making, social-cultural awareness, and cognitive reasoning."It’s not just material," Brown said. "It’s much more than that. It’s the human dimension."Brown also explained that the Army must partner with industry in order to provide the newest technologies at the squad level.There remains a large gap between what the squad needs – light weight ammunition and body armor, portable mine-clearing and robotics – and what it actually receives through the Army acquisition process.Brown also spoke about the role "digital comfort" has played in improving the efficiency of the squad. This includes individual and collective virtual training through avatars the soldiers create of themselves and increased connectivity to fellow soldiers and the Army network through the Army smartphone."This digital comfort has been huge," Brown said.Another area of challenge for the squad, according to Command Sgt. Maj. James Hardy, is that it has had to cover more ground and take on more duties in the era of counterinsurgency missions in large post-invasion countries."The squad has not changed that much over time," Hardy said. "But what we expect the squad to do has changed over time.""One of the things that has come about is Advanced Situational Awareness Training (ASAT)," he added. "Over the next 12 months, we’ll run a pilot at the Army Maneuver Center and we’re going to incorporate the ASAT training into the non-commissioned officer courses, the captain career courses, the reconnaissance-surveillance leaders course, the Army reconnaissance course, the sniper course, and a couple of others."