Should PSYOP expand its TPT sizes? Increase from 3 to 5 or 6 in order to allow for more autonomous work?

If you needed a 5-6 man team you would just use 2 teams. There is no reason to expand what already works. Every time I've operated on a TPT though it's been as an individual.

I don’t believe there is a need to increase the size of a Tactical PSYOP Team (TPT) on the unit’s MTOEs. PSYOP units by its nature are scalable/tailorable and their size can be adjusted according to the necessity. So the issue relies on the mission and who is been supported, therefore a through mission analysis is required.

Changing the rules of allocation would probably address the problem-set you think this would solve, without making the teams too large to be self-sufficient with the vehicles and equipment currently on-hand.

My assumption is that you believe one 3-person TPT is insufficient to provide MISO support to a maneuver battalion. After all, the Team Chief - theoretically the highest-ranking PSYOP Specialist in the battalion - should be integrated into the battalion operations and targeting cycles, but should also be conducting MISO missions with the rest of his or her TPT. And oh yeah, most of those missions are conducted with subordinate companies that may or may not be co-located with the battalion headquarters. All in all, it can be a logistical nightmare especially if the TPT is needed to conduct MISO in support of more than one company at a time.

If the current rules of allocation are pushed one echelon lower, the TPT would go to the company instead of battalion. The Detachment would then be supporting the battalion, with an OIC and NCOIC, supported by their headquarters section, to ensure full MISO integration into battalion-level planning. The brigade/brigade combat team then gets the company-level support (to include the development and production capability) that they craved throughout OIF and OEF.

This would certainly raise some issues, not least of which would be the ability of a BCT headquarters to absorb the number of personnel required for company-level operations. It would also require the USAR PSYOP Battalions to deploy in support of a division or joint task force, which could raise all sorts of hackles.

In addition to putting TPTs at the company level - which I would consider enough of a success to recommend this idea - it puts the field-grade company commander on the brigade planning staff, rather than the company-grade detachment OIC. That, and the LTC at the division/JTF level, could go a long way to helping the MISO capability being taken more seriously by the rest of the staff.