Editing Flying wedge (section)

=== Modern warfare ===
[[File:US Navy 110812-N-UD522-172 Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Matthew Leistikow leads Sailors in a wedge patrol formation during patrol famili.jpg|thumb|right|US Navy sailors in a wedge patrol formation during patrol familiarization during a field training exercise in 2011.]]
The wedge is still used in modern armies, especially by [[tank]]s and other armored units. An example of this is the ''[[Panzerkeil]]'' or "armored wedge" used by the German [[Wehrmacht]] in [[World War II]].

The hollow wedge formation remains one of the basic infantry formations at the squad and section level, especially when crossing open ground. However unlike in ancient and medieval times, the formation is used not to maximise effectiveness in melee combat, but to maximise the situational awareness and firepower of a unit. The intervals between soldiers is designed to give mutually supporting lines of sight that do not obscure one another forward and to the sides, and this also corresponds to mutually supporting overlapping arcs of fire. The [[squad automatic weapon]] will usually anchor one of the flanks of a [[fireteam]] wedge. In a platoon wedge the command group and platoon machine guns are placed in the hollow of the wedge.

Exactly the same principles of mutually supporting lines of sight and fire, apply to an armored vehicles deployed in a wedge formation.

There are many advantages to using this formation. It provides more [[Overwatch (military tactic)|overwatch]] as a result of the area it spans. [[Bounding overwatch]] can also be transitioned fast and efficiently. The regiment can change formation with ease and the front of it has a significant amount of strength from its crossfire.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mission Command |url=https://www.benning.army.mil/Infantry/DoctrineSupplement/ATP3-21.8/chapter_04/section_08/page_0050/index.html |access-date=2022-05-14 |website=www.benning.army.mil |archive-date=2023-03-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230319060820/https://www.benning.army.mil/Infantry/DoctrineSupplement/ATP3-21.8/chapter_04/section_08/page_0050/index.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==== Drill formation ====
The wedge formation is used ceremonially by cadets at the [[United States Air Force Academy]] during the annual graduation parade, when the soon-to-be commissioned first-class cadets (seniors) leave the Cadet Wing.  This is the reverse of the acceptance parade, held each fall, when the new fourth-class cadets (freshmen) join the Cadet Wing in the inverted wedge formation.