Squad

A squad is the second-smallest military unit of organization, consisting of a squad leader and around a dozen soldiers under his command (depending on the country). The squad may be subdivided into fireteams (the smallest military unit) of about four soldiers each.

Squads of up to six soldiers are introduced in Battlefield 2, and eventually settled on the four-man squads seen in Battlefield 3.

Squad features
Players may join a squad upon entering a server or beginning a round. Otherwise, players must be alive to join a squad. A player can leave or start a squad at any time.

A special set of icons and in-game indicators help squad members identify each other and their objective.

In-game voice chat occurs only between squad members (and between the commander and squad leaders). The squad also receives its own text chat channel, colored differently from the rest of the team and their enemy.

In games featuring squads, those players not in a squad are considered lone wolves.

Squad leader
A player may start a squad at any time (provided a limit on the number of squads hasn't been reached), becoming its squad leader (SL). Squad leaders can invite other players on his team to join the squad, kick members out of the squad (but not out of the game). SLs can also lock a squad, preventing others from joining except by invite.

The squad leader receives the following abilities:
 * Issue orders to the squad
 * A special spawn point for squad members
 * Earn points related to squad leading
 * Use a separate command channel in voice chat
 * Use special gadgets available only to squad leaders

In many games, the SL can give their squad a special name. Otherwise, squads are assigned NATO phonetic alphabet letters as their squad designation.

Squad Screen
In certain games, squads and their members are shown on the spawn screen, along with the map's spawn points.

Battlefield 2
Battlefield 2 introduces the squad feature, with up to nine squads of six players each at a time.

Squad leaders can also request and receive orders from the commander, and can place requests for commander assets on the commander's view.

Battlefield 2142
Battlefield 2142 gives players a special set of useful squad leader gadgets: The squad must be of a certain size in order for the squad leader to use a specific gadget. Any player can still equip a SL gadget, potentially allowing a squad leader to use different or multiple gadgets at once.
 * Squad Leader Spawn Beacon for setting a static squad spawn point
 * RD-4 Otus recon drone
 * SD-8 Accipiter sentry drone
 * Reinforcement Prioritization Unit for quicker respawn times.

Squad mechanics are otherwise the same as BF2.

Battlefield: Bad Company
In Battlefield: Bad Company and later games, the maximum squad size is four. BFBC adds an HUD element showing the squad the player belongs to.

Battlefield 3
Four-man squads return to Battlefield 3.

Players can earn points for killing an enemy squad leader.

The spawn beacon from 2142 returns in the form of a Radio Beacon.