I dont get the hate for the two basic officers. Yeah lieutenant is a slightly worse rifleman but I can tell you that Soviets wish they got a free slightly weaker penal when they techhed up.
Captain is highly underrated if nothing else but for "on me". Even though it's not an aoe anymore it's a free +20% accuracy and +20% durability that gives suppression immunity and sprint. Spam this ability whenever its off cooldown. Who needs smoke when you can just charge the mg and ignore suppression.
Can confirm, captain is by and far the best officer squad for USF, and probably the smartest tech direction as well (AAHT, AT gun, Pack howi). People don't realize it anymore, but it also vets up faster than the LT, and if you put zooks on the captain, the reload veterancy will let him fire the bazooka faster than any other USF squad (20%). So most of the time, especially now that captain can upgrade with BAR without the rack, captain is the better utility (supervise and "on me!") and dps choice (techless BAR, reload vet for zooks) out of the two officer squads, despite being the same exact price.
Really, the only officer squad I don't like right now is the LT, who has the highest vet requirements out of all the other USF infantry, more than even rangers or paratroopers, probably dating back to when he used to come with a free BAR, and besides having a tommy gun and getting slightly better RA vet, really isn't any different from a rifle squad. It'd be really cool if this squad had some sort of utility like the Major and Captain. I mean, it's cool that he managed to keep smoke and the frag at the same time, something rifles lost, but he otherwise handles exactly like a rifle squad. Maybe giving him something like a toned down version of the Ostheer Artillery Officer "Concentrated Fire" ability, except applied to a single allied squad, or something like that.
I'm not sure how there's this many replies to another CODGUY thread, btw. The only USF unit that I feel is prohibitively expensive at all is the M2HB, and that's only because the squad has so many stupid behind the scenes downsides (like only 0.5 retreat RA) that I hardly feel like it's worth the price most of the time.