Airborne: A Guided Tour of an Airborne Task Force

of whether the Air Force is willing to risk their C-17s, which cost about $300 million a copy, to the hazardous job of flying armored vehicles into a potentially “hot” airhead. This question is compounded when you consider that the 3/73 had over fifty M551 Sheridans, while the RRC has only four tanks and four Bradleys. This is a poor solution at best, but is currently the only option for the 82nd if it really needs armored firepower in the field.

These various attachments mean that an airborne task force from the 82nd can be tailored to meet most any kind of threat that it might encounter. While there are real concerns about getting the 82nd’s troopers some kind of armored support in the early stages of an airborne assault, the mix of weapons and personnel is fairly good against most kinds of threats. The big problem is getting them to the battle area, and that is the job of the U.S. Air Force (USAF).

Transportation: The Air Force

It goes without saying that without transport aircraft, the 82nd Airborne Division cannot even get off the ground. For this reason, the 82nd has formed a series of strong bonds with certain USAF units around the country. All of these units are assigned either to the Air Combat Command (ACC, headquartered at Langley AFB, Virginia) or the Air Mobility Command (AMC, based at Scott AFB, Illinois). These USAF elements provide a variety of support services for the 82nd Airborne Division as well as the other units of the XVIII Airborne Corps. Without them, the components of the corps would not even be able to leave the United States. While any number of USAF units are capable of supporting these operations, the following are the most commonly assigned to the task:

• 23rd Wing (the “Flying Tigers”): The 23rd Wing is a composite unit, similar to the 366th Wing at Mountain Home AFB in Idaho.[50] Unlike the 366th, which is optimized for strike and air superiority operations, the 23rd is composed of theater transport and close air support/forward air control (CAS/FAC) aircraft. The 23rd is specifically designed to act as a partner for the 82nd Airborne Division, which lies just over the fence at Fort Bragg. Composed of two fighter squadrons of A/OA- 10A Warthogs (the 74th with eighteen aircraft and the 75th with twenty-four) and two airlift squadrons of C-130Es (the 2nd and 41st each with eighteen aircraft), the 23rd can provide enough ready transport to get an airborne battalion task force into the air for a local mission (say, within 1,500 miles/2,400 kilometers of Fort Bragg), while additional airlift assets can be gathered to start moving other parts of the division. Along with helping get an airborne task force to their target and supplying them, the Warthogs of the 74th and 75th Fighter Squadrons can also deploy to the combat zone to provide CAS/FAC support.

While all this sounds really neat, there are significant changes coming for the Flying Tigers (yes, these are the direct descendants of the old China hands from World War II) in 1997. There had originally been a squadron of F-16 Fighting

Falcons assigned to the 23rd to help provide fighter support. However, these were eliminated after a fatal midair collision /crash between a 23rd F-16 and C-130. The fatalities came when the flaming wreckage of the F-16 fell into a C-141 loaded with 82nd paratroops on the Pope AFB ramp, killing or injuring dozens. More recently, though, the USAF leadership decided to return control of all the C-130s from ACC to AMC. The idea is that this will put all of America’s airlift assets under one organization, simplifying the process of getting people and stuff overseas in an emergency. This will mean that the wing and Pope AFB will change ownership on April 1st, 1997, to AMC. Once this happens, the plans have the airlift squadrons becoming part of the new 43rd Airlift Wing, and the two A/OA-10 squadrons becoming the 23rd Fighter Group, which will be an ACC tenant unit at Pope AFB. Whatever happens, though, plan on seeing the relationship between the USAF units at Pope AFB and the 82nd continuing for the foreseeable future.

• 347th Wing: The 347th at Moody AFB, Georgia, is another composite unit, though with a slightly different flavor than the 23rd. The 347th is designed to work with the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) at Fort Stewart, Georgia. The 347th’s focus is on CAS and interdiction strikes, with only a minor emphasis on airlift. Thus, you find the 347th composed of two fighter squadrons of F-16C Fighting Falcons (the 68th and 69th with twenty-four aircraft each), a fighter squadron of A/OA-lOAs (the 70th with twenty-four aircraft), and an airlift squadron of C-130Es (the 52nd with eighteen birds). Like the 23rd, the 347th is designed to rapidly move into a theater of operations and set up support operations within a matter of hours.

• 314th Airlift Wing: While the 23rd Wing can get a battalion or two of troopers into the air, they lack the numbers of C-130s to move the entire division. For that trick (as was required during the planned Haitian drop), the 82nd normally calls the 314th Airlift Wing down at Little Rock AFB, Arkansas. The 314th has four full airlift squadrons of factory-fresh C-130Hs (the 50th, 53rd, 61st, and 62nd), enough to lift three entire brigades of troops (this is the entire division) in one lift if the 23rd helps out. This is an extremely well-run unit that has derived a lot of benefit by being based at the same location as the USAF’s Combat Aerial Delivery School, the C-130 post- graduate tactics school.

• 437th Airlift Wing: C-130s are nice, but to move really heavy stuff (like big trucks and 155mm M198 howitzers) or lots of people to the other side of the world, you need the heavy iron: C-17A Globemaster IIIs and C-141 B Starlifters. The 437th is just the unit for the job, being the first USAF unit to field the C-17. Located at Charleston AFB, South Carolina, the 437th is a wing in transition. Originally equipped as the primary East Coast C-141 unit, it is right now divided evenly with two airlift squadrons of C-17s (the 14th and 17th, with a total of 24 aircraft), and two of C-141 Bs (the 15th and 16th with some 35 birds). In the event that the 82nd needs the 3rd Division’s RRC, it will probably be the 437th that will draw the delivery duty. Current plans have the 15th converting over to C-17s in 1997 and 1998, with the 16th AS as the last in line to be converted. This is because the 16th is the only C-141 unit in the USAF that has special operations capabilities built into their aircraft. These specially configured Starlifters (there are just a handful with qualified crews) can be recognized by their FLIR sensors which are mounted in special mounts on the nose. Inside, these special -141 are equipped with armor plate, special navigation and communications gear, and room for an extra pilot and navigator. This gives the crews of the 16th AS the ability to fly low-level covert penetration missions at intercontinental ranges, and then deliver their cargo with extreme precision.

• 305th Air Mobility Wing: The 305th, which is based out of McGuire AFB in New Jersey, is something of a “swing” unit in AMC. This four-squadron wing is designed to support a major overseas deployment by providing both cargo-carrying capacity and in-flight refueling services while deploying. As currently structured, the 305th has two airlift squadrons of C-141B Starlifters (the 6th and 13th, each with sixteen aircraft) as well as two air refueling squadrons of KC-10A Extender tankers (the 2nd and 32nd with ten birds each). This is a powerful combination, with enough refueling capacity, cargo stowage, and personnel space, when combined with the aircraft of the 437th, to do a full division drop on the other side of the world in a single lift. Once there, the KC-10s can offer a robust refueling force for the aircraft in the theater, whatever nation they may be from. This unit is a true national resource.

• Charter Aircraft/Civil Air Reserve Fleet (CRAF): Every now and again, life throws you a lucky break. Back in August of 1990, when the 82nd’s 2nd Brigade deployed as the first ground unit into Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield, they did not have to fight their way in. Instead, the 2nd Brigade troopers walked aboard a bunch of chartered jumbo jets, weapons and all, and flew to the Dhahran air base in air-conditioned luxury. This is, perhaps, the ultimate example of a “permissive” entry by airborne forces into a theater of operations. Today, commercial charter aircraft remain an important transport option for U.S. forces deploying overseas. The series of deployments to Kuwait over the past few years have all used commercial charters, because they are cheap for the taxpayers, comfortable for the troops, and wonderfully profitable for the airlines that sell the entire plane flight at full “pop” to the government.

The flip side of the charter business is the CRAF, which was created to provide a fleet of airliners and cargo aircraft for times of national emergency. These aircraft are owned by airlines, but subsidized by the Department of Defense. This means that if a suitable crisis breaks out, the President can order a phased CRAF activation to provide extra airlift capacity when and where it is required. Thus far, the only time the CRAF has been activated was during the 1990/1991 Persian Gulf crisis. However, CRAF remains available to deploy units like the 82nd, should a permissive entry option, like Saudi Arabia in 1990, be available to U.S. forces.

There are, of course, numerous other USAF units that might be committed to supporting a deployment by