compact, with enough hitting or capability power to be effective in their given missions.
The Germans were early leaders in airborne equipment. Their cultural mania for precision and function helped them produce some of the most interesting tools and weapons ever carried by paratroopers anywhere. This included lightweight mortars and machine guns, as well as small field and antitank guns. Their original paratrooper knife is still considered a classic among warriors around the world. The Germans even pioneered the use of lightweight shaped and demolition charges, which they employed with great effect during the assault on the Belgian fort at Eben Emael (May 1940). They also produced light tanks (as did the British) which could be carried by large gliders.
As other countries started to develop their own airborne units, they too began to develop specialized equipment. America was no exception. Yankee ingenuity was quickly brought to bear, and results came rapidly to the battlefields of World War II. The Willys Jeep was undoubtedly the greatest American contribution. For the first time, airborne units had a level of mobility and hauling power once they were on the ground.[6] Small enough to be carried by a standard Waco or Horsa glider, the jeep could tow small pack howitzers or antitank guns, carry machine-gun and bazooka teams, or just allow a unit commander to rapidly move around the battlefield with his radio gear.
The end of World War II brought the beginning of the nuclear age and the Cold War. The introduction of nuclear weapons to the battlefield gave many military leaders the feeling that infantry forces in general, and airborne forces in particular, might become obsolete. Other leaders saw new opportunities, though, and concepts for improving airborne firepower and equipment were quick in coming. Perhaps the most impressive of these were recoilless rifles (spin-stabilized antitank and artillery projectiles launched from tubes). What made these so special was that they were lightweight and compact enough to carry on the back of a jeep. For the first time, airborne troopers had a weapon that would allow them to defeat the heaviest armor on the battlefield, albeit with a serious risk to the health of the recoilless rifle crews!
The revolution in compact solid-state electronics and lightweight materials has proven to be the key to keeping airborne forces credible over the past forty years or so. At first, it was seen in the production of truly reliable and lightweight radio equipment. From this humble start, though, came the development of a whole new generation of weapons and equipment for airborne and other infantry forces. Wire-guided antitank guided missiles (ATGMs) like the Russian AT-2 Sagger and the U.S. TOW brought parity between infantry and armor forces on the battlefield in the 1970s. At the same time, the first man-portable surface-to-air missiles like the Soviet SA-7 Grail and the famous Stinger gave infantry a real defense against aircraft. In the early 1990s, man-portable satellite communications and navigation equipment was commonly used in the Persian Gulf and Panama by the 82nd Airborne Division. Today, with microcomputer brains, a new generation of “brilliant” weapons like the Javelin ATGM is going to give airborne forces new credibility on the battlefield.
If there is a single major shortcoming to our airborne forces today, it is the lack of an air-dropable armored weapons system. Airborne forces have always feared the power of mechanized units more than almost any other threat on the modern battlefield. Every paratrooper’s nightmares include the memory of what happened to the British 1st Airborne Division during Operation Market Garden in September 1944. Planning to seize a pair of bridges over the Rhine River, the division wound up landing on top of a pair of SS Panzer divisions, and was chopped to pieces. To prevent a recurrence of the Arnhem disaster, the airborne forces of many nations have developed light armored vehicles to help defend against enemy armor. Today, the lack of a replacement for the M551 Sheridan light tank has left a huge gap in the combat power of the 82nd Airborne Division.[7] A well-run program to produce a new system, the M-8 Armored Gun System, was canceled in 1996 to help pay for several overseas contingencies including Bosnia-Herzegovina. The interim solution to the heavy armor threat is a system called LOSAT, which will be mounted on a High Mobility, Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) chassis. LOSAT is a hypervelocity (faster than Mach 5) missile, which will defeat enemy tanks by punching through armor with a long rod of depleted uranium. In fact, look for more and more systems used by the airborne to be mounted on HMMWVs. They are reliable, can be easily fitted into any transport aircraft, and can carry a good payload. The perfect combination for the airborne’s requirements.
Still, there is more to combat power than the size of a gun or the range of a missile. Like the men who lead the U.S. Marines, the leadership of the 82nd Airborne still consider their most dangerous weapon the individual airborne trooper with his personal weapons. There is an acronym that they like to use, LGOP, that says it all. LGOP stands for “little groups of paratroopers,” and is a core philosophy within the 82nd. It means that even if there are no officers, and nothing but personal weapons, LGOPs are expected to form, and fight their way to the objective. That determination is echoed in the Airborne war cry of “All the way!”
Operations: The Modern Airborne Assault
Airborne operations, even after more than six decades of practice and combat experience, remain some of the most difficult and dangerous attempted by conventional military forces. Even amphibious operations against a hostile shore are relatively safe and simple by comparison. Yet it is the ever-looming threat of an airborne assault that gives the troops of units like the American 82nd Airborne and the British 5th Paras such credibility with their opponents. But just how would such a mission be undertaken, and how would it be executed?
The first element of any airborne operation is a crisis. A really
President George Bush faced such a decision on August 8th, 1990, when he dispatched the first elements of various units to defend Saudi Arabia in what became Operation Desert Shield. These units included F-15s from the 1st Tactical Fighter Wing, the USS
For President Bush, the decision to commit the 82nd was the point of no return. If Iraq had tried to invade Saudi Arabia in those early days, it would have been a thin line of paratroopers and Marines, backed up by the limited supply of airpower of General Chuck Horner (then the commander of the U.S. Central Command Air Forces, CENTAF). Whether or not this thin line of units could have stopped an Iraqi onslaught is still a point of discussion among military analysts today. But if they had failed, tens of thousands of Americans would have been in jeopardy, with few escape routes. Even now, the troopers from 2nd Brigade who were first into Saudi Arabia refer to themselves as the “speedbumps,” out of a morbid realization that they might have been just that for the Iraqis. This lack of fallback options is one of the things that make airborne operations so risky. If you cannot rapidly relieve, reinforce, resupply, or evacuate the airborne forces, they will likely be chopped to pieces by superior enemy
