Airborne (1997) Read Free Page B

U.S. made up for its late start, and eventually conducted some of the largest and most successful airborne operations of all time. Today, despite their high costs, these same nations (and many others) continue to maintain some sort of airborne force. The reasons are obvious. The ability to reach into another nation’s territory and suddenly insert a military presence is just the kind of policy option that decision makers might want in a time of crisis. Think back to the 1976 Entebbe hostage rescue by the Israelis, the 1989 Panama invasion, or the initial Desert Shield deployments to Saudi Arabia in 1990.
    Unfortunately, keeping such a capability alive and viable is expensive. Airborne troops need special training, equipment, and a force of transport aircraft to deliver them to their targets. Also, the personnel in airborne units are among the best qualified and motivated in the military, thus depriving other branches and services of skilled leaders and technicians that are badly needed. As early as World War II, senior Army leaders were concerned that the airborne divisions were skimming off the cream of their best infantry. A private in an airborne unit might well be qualified to be a sergeant and squad leader in a regular infantry formation. Still, those same Army leaders recognize a need for a hard-tipped force to smash an opening into enemy territory and lead the way in. That force is the airborne.
    Modern airborne forces are part of the small group of elite units used by the United States and other nations in the highly specialized role of “forced entry.” This means forces assigned, specially trained, and equipped to lead assaults into an enemy-held area, then hold open the breach until reinforcements arrive to continue the attack. Today, these units usually fall into one of three different categories. They include:
    • Amphibious Forces: These include sea-based units such as the United States Marine Corps (USMC) Marine Expeditionary Units—Special Operations Capable (MEU [SOC]) and the Royal Marine Commando brigades. Riding aboard specially designed amphibious ships and equipped with landing craft and helicopters, they provide the ability to loiter for a long time and hold an enemy coastline at risk.
    • Air Assault Units: Air assault units are helicopter-borne forces that enable a commander to reach several hundred miles/kilometers deep into enemy territory. First developed in the 1950s by the U.S. Marine Corps, these units are capable of lifting battalion or even brigade-sized infantry forces deep into enemy rear areas to establish strong points, blocking positions, or even logistical bases. Usually land-based in a nearby host nation, they also can be based aboard aircraft carriers, as was done during Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti in 1994.
    • Airborne Units: Airborne (parachute/air-delivered) forces are the final, and most responsive, forced-entry units available to national-level decision makers. They can be rapidly tasked and dispatched to virtually anywhere the antiair threat level is tolerant to transport aircraft. When combined with strategic airlift and in-flight refueling aircraft, they allow the early deployment of ground forces across almost any distance.
     
    In the United States, we have formed our airborne forces into several different types of units. A small percentage are concentrated into the various Army special forces units, like the famous Ranger battalions. Most of our airborne capabilities are found in a single large formation, the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Built around three airborne brigades (each based around a reinforced parachute regiment), it is a force with almost twenty thousand jump-qualified personnel. Everyone from the two-star divisional commander to the public-affairs file clerk is certified to make parachute jumps into a potential combat zone. Once upon a time, there were several dozen such units in the world’s armies. Today, though, only