Mechanized infantry

Mechanized infantry are infantry equipped with armored personnel carriers (APCs) or infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) for transport and combat (see also mechanized force).

Mechanized infantry is distinguished from motorized infantry in that its vehicles provide a degree of protection from hostile fire, as opposed to "soft-skinned" wheeled vehicles (trucks or jeeps) for motorized infantry. Most APCs and IFVs are fully tracked, or are all-wheel drive vehicles (6×6 or 8×8), for mobility across rough ground. Some nations distinguish between mechanized and armoured infantry, designating troops carried by APCs as mechanized and those in IFVs as armoured.

The support weapons for mechanized infantry are also provided with motorized transport, or are built directly into combat vehicles, in order to keep pace with the mechanized infantry in combat. For units equipped with most types of APC or any type of IFV, fire support weapons, such as machine guns, autocannons, small-bore direct-fire howitzers, and even anti-tank guided missiles, are often mounted directly on the infantry's own transport vehicles.

Infantry

The infantry is the branch of a military force that fights on foot. As the troops who are intended to engage, fight, and defeat the enemy in face-to-face combat, they bear the brunt of warfare and typically suffer the greatest number of casualties. Historically, as the oldest branch of the combat arms, the infantry are the tip of the spear of a modern army, and continually undergo training that is more physically stressful and psychologically demanding than that of any other branch of the combat arms.

Infantry can enter and maneuver in terrain that is inaccessible to military vehicles and employ crew-served infantry weapons that provide greater and more sustained firepower. The transport and delivery techniques of modern infantrymen to engage in battle include marching, mechanised transport, airborne by parachute or by air assault from helicopter and amphibious landing from the sea.

History and etymology

In English, the 16th-century term Infantry (ca. 1570s) describes soldiers who walk to the battlefield, and there engage, fight, and defeat the enemy in direct combat, usually to take and occupy the terrain. As describing the branch of the combat arms, the term Infantry derives from the French Infanterie, which, in turn, is derived from the Italian Fanteria and ultimately from the Latin Infantera; the individual-soldier term Infantryman (1837) was not coined until the 19th century. Historically, before the invention and the introduction of firearms to warfare, the foot soldiers of previous eras—armed with blunt and edged weapons, and a shield—also are considered and identified as infantrymen.

United States Army

The United States Army (USA) is the largest branch of the United States Armed Forces and performs land-based military operations. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution, Article 2, Section 2, Clause 1 and United States Code, Title 10, Subtitle B, Chapter 301, Section 3001. As the largest and senior branch of the U.S. military, the modern U.S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, which was formed (14 June 1775) to fight the American Revolutionary War (1775–83)—before the U.S. was established as a country. After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784, to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The United States Army considers itself descended from the Continental Army, and dates its institutional inception from the origin of that armed force in 1775.