Paratroopers ("paras" to our Commonwealth friends) are cool. They jump out of airplanes, have shiny wings, and wear funny hats and shiny boots. John Wayne was a paratrooper. So were Sean Connery and Roger Moore. At least that's what Hollywood tells me. In addition to looking cool and getting all the ladies, Airborne Forces can also be very useful in accomplishing specific strategic objectives when used properly. When used improperly they can lead to disaster. So grab yer gear and let's go!
PlanningThe first stage of any military operation is planning, and the first stage of planning is defining your objectives. Paratroopers are generally best for situations when suprise and speed are needed, such as seizing a bridgehead or airfield. However, this speed comes at a price. Paras are lighly armed and, despite advances in man-portable anti-tank systems, cannot hold out long against a heavily armored force. They also need to be relieved quickly, so dropping them 400 miles behind enemy lines is not only unrealistic, but stupid. Here are some situations where paratroopers are a good idea:
- Seizing an airfield - A classic mission for paratroops, as they can be resupplied almost instantaneously by transport aircraft.
- Suprising a technologically or numerically inferior opponent - See RL Rhodesia's "Fireforce" operations for an example of this. The first wave of assault troops jumped, suprising ZANU and ZIPRA insurgents. Additional troops were brought in by helicopter.
- Insertion of Special Operations Forces - This is a classic use of parachute insertion, and an exception to the rule about overextension. Parachute insertion was used to infiltrate advisers to resistance forces in occupied France during WWII, and helicopter insertion was used to insert American Special Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Seizing a bridge - This is a risky one, as you have to be sure that your ground force can relieve the paratroopers in time. That was the problem encountered by the British 6th Airborne during Operation Market Garden.
Okay, great! Now, let me get my 100,000 men ready to go!Hold up, trooper! One hundred thousand men? Let's think about this for a second.
A C-130 holds 64 paratroopers. Now, dividing 100,000 by 64 gives us 1562.5. That means you would need 1563 C-130's to carry that many men. That's over 1500 aircraft coordinated to take off, fly to the same spot at the same time and drop their people right where you need them. Logistically, that is insane. Operation Varsity, the largest parachute operation in history, only dropped 18,000 men. And that was a huge, huge undertaking. In modern times, such a large mission would most likely be undertaken by airmobile troops deployed from helicopters.
Ah, man! But I can fit a tank in an airplane, right? I can drop tanks and howitzers!Yes and no. Vehicles like the LAV-25, M551 Sheridan, M113 and the BMD can be dropped by aircraft, but with some caveats.
First, the cargo must be dropped
before the soldiers, not after. Otherwise, you run the risk of a very heavy, very dumb object landing on humans which, as Lt. Worf observed, are "ugly bags of mostly water." Unless you want your DZ to resemble a truck windshield after a cloud of mosquitos, I would advise against this.
Second, the vehicles you're dropping are, by nature, lightly armored. That's what allows them to be carried in airplanes. So, while you could very easily land a M113 equipped with TOW missiles, don't expect to be dropping Leopard II's.
Third, vehicles require maintenance. If one of yours has a break down, which one will (Murphy's Law), fixing it will be difficult. And this difficulty only increases with the size and complexity of the vehicle. A Jeep should be fixable with an included tire repair kit and a Leatherman, but fixing a Sheridan is going to be a headache.
Oh well, if I need more stuff, I can just drop it in, right?Again, yes and no. You can drop all you want, but whether it gets into the hands of your people is a different story. Take, for example, Dien Bien Phu. The French planned to resupply their garrison by air, however many of the drops landed in Vietminh hands. The same thing happened in Arnhem during Market Garden. It will usually turn out that the times troops need supplies the most are the times when they are least equipped to go get them.
But I can use helicopters for that, right?You can try, but rotary aircraft can be downed by shoulder-launched SAMs, heavy or medium machine guns, and, as the US discovered in Somalia, by RPG's. My advise is, unless you want to risk resupply by air, to drop your forces as close to your own lines as possible while still being able to capture their objective.
I'd like to close by saying that paratrooper drops are usually regarded as a last resort, only to be used when land or helicopter-based forces cannot reach an objective. They are expensive both in terms of training and of public perception. When paratrooper operations go wrong, they usually do so in a spectacular manner, such as Market Garden.
