The mechanized infantry platoon is equipped with four BFVs. For mounted operations, it is organized in two sections of two vehicles each. The dismounted element consists of three squads of nine soldiers each and a machine gun section of five soldiers. The dismounted infantry squads ride in the BFVs, which serve as the base of fire during dismounted infantry operations.[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M2_Bradley
How is it possible that a dismounted platoon of 4 bradleys can carry three squads of nine soldiers each plus a machine gun section of five soldiers? That's 32 dismounted men. The bradley itself only holds 6 men in the infantry compartment besides a crew of 3 to man the vehicle. That would seem to suggest that only 24 dismounted men could possibly be fielded by a platoon. The only way to have a dismounted section of 32 men would be to practically abandon the vehicles except for the driver. That would seem to render the Bradley's weapons inoperable during a dismounted operation.
My guess would be that a dismounted Bradley platoon should be no greater than 24 men strong, and that 12 men would stay behind to man the 4 vehicles for fire support. Unless I'm missing something obvious, something doesn't seem to jive with the article above. [&:]
