Vanguards descend from the sky: airborne troops to safeguard national security

Airborne troops are troops that use aircraft as transportation and parachute or airborne landing to fight on the ground. In different countries, airborne troops belong to different branches of the military, usually belonging to the army or the air force. In most countries, the airborne troops are organized into brigades or divisions, and in a few countries, they are organized into armies.

The fighter plane flew over the designated airspace, and the parachutists jumped out of the cabin one after another

Airborne troops are required to be multi-talented and specialized in multiple areas. In addition to being proficient in the various skills of the army infantry and being proficient in the weapons in their hands, they must also learn to use various weapons and equipment within the organization, and master the general skills of engineers, chemical defense soldiers, communications soldiers, reconnaissance soldiers, and missile soldiers. Airborne troops have advanced and sophisticated weapons and equipment. After special training, they must be able to drive a variety of motor vehicles, jump a variety of parachute types and models, and survive in field operations in mountainous areas, plateaus, islands, tropical and subtropical areas, and forests. Airborne troops can overcome geographical obstacles and ground defense lines and directly enter the enemy's rear for surprise attacks. They are an important combat force used for rapid deployment and deep attacks. They can not only cooperate with frontal offensive forces in combat, but also fight independently behind enemy lines.

The basic mission of airborne troops is to launch surprise attacks on the enemy's political, military, economic and other strategic targets, seize and hold important targets or areas in the enemy's campaign and tactical depth, implement rapid deployment, respond to emergencies, and conduct special operations behind enemy lines. The biggest feature of airborne troops is their high mobility. The stronger their strategic delivery capability and the higher the proportion of airborne heavy troops, the stronger their combat capability. Airborne troops play an important role in modern three-dimensional warfare. They are a force that can overcome ground obstacles, carry out long-distance raids, and conduct all-round rapid mobile operations. They play an important strategic deterrent role in the military.

After completing the parachute operation, the assault team quickly launched an attack

The status and role of airborne troops are very prominent. First, airborne troops can change the strategic pattern. When the national interest space is facing a crisis, airborne troops can quickly enter the conflict area through long-distance direct access, quickly and effectively deal with the conflict situation, contain, suppress and defeat hostile intentions, and safeguard national interests. Second, airborne troops can change the course of war. In war, airborne troops use deep mobile operations to seize and control the key areas of the battle, split the enemy's deployment, carry out rapid mobile strikes, build a decisive combat situation, and speed up the battle rhythm, thereby changing the course of the war. Third, airborne troops are an important force in maintaining national security. In today's world, the process of globalization is accelerating, the relationship between countries is becoming increasingly close, and their interests are widely intertwined. National globalization means globalization of interests. To safeguard national interests, it is necessary to establish a global vision and strengthen globalization strategies, which makes airborne troops particularly important.

Airborne troops have gone through a century of development. They were born in the First World War, when Germany, France and other countries repeatedly parachuted soldiers behind enemy lines to carry out raids and reconnaissance missions. Some military experts explored the issue of establishing airborne troops. W. Mitchell of the United States and others once proposed the idea of ​​using a group of bombers to airdrop an infantry division behind the German front to carry out an attack. After the war, the development of transport aircraft and parachutes provided a material basis for the establishment of airborne troops. In 1930, the Soviet Union began to test the establishment of an airborne detachment, which was expanded into an airborne brigade in 1932. Subsequently, Germany, France, Italy and other countries also successively established airborne troops.

Airborne troops developed rapidly during World War II and were used on a large scale in combat. In the early days, the Soviet Union had 5 airborne corps and Germany had 2 airborne divisions. Later, the Soviet Union developed to 10 airborne corps and Germany developed to 1 airborne corps (8 divisions). The United States, Britain, and Japan began to form airborne troops in 1940. When Germany blitzed Denmark and Norway in 1940, it used airborne troops for the first time in an organized manner, with 1 parachute regiment and 3 airborne regiments. In the "Market-Garden" campaign of the United States, Britain, and Poland in 1944 to attack the Netherlands, the scale of the use of airborne troops reached 1 airborne corps, a total of 3 divisions and 1 brigade. During the war, the warring countries carried out more than 100 airborne operations of various types. Before the end of the war, the United States had 5 airborne divisions and several independent airborne corps, the United Kingdom had 3 airborne divisions and several independent airborne brigades, and Japan had 1 airborne division.

After the war, more and more countries have airborne troops. The system and organization of airborne troops have been constantly adjusted, weapons and equipment have been constantly updated, and the level of tactics and technology has been continuously improved. They have been widely used in local wars. For example, the French army used airborne troops in the Indochina War, the US army used airborne troops in the Vietnam War, the invasion of Grenada and the invasion of Panama, and the Soviet army used airborne troops in the invasion of Afghanistan and the Middle East War. In the 1980s, the armies of nearly 100 countries and regions in the world had airborne troops. In the Gulf War, the first ground combat force to arrive in the combat area was the airborne troops. In the Chechen War, the Russian airborne troops also played an important role. In recent years, whether it is the intervention in Crimea during the Ukrainian crisis or the Syrian military operation, the airborne troops have played an important role, reflecting the high level of airborne troops. Their command system, system and organization, weapons and equipment match the needs of modern combat.

The firepower team provides fire coverage to the "enemy" target

In China, the Kuomintang army formed a paratrooper regiment in 1944, which was expanded into three regiments in 1948, and a paratrooper command was established in the Air Force. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese People's Liberation Army selected a group of combat heroes and selected divisions, regiments, and battalion headquarters that had been tempered in battle from the army. In 1950, it formed the first airborne force, called the First Air Force Marine Brigade, which was under the Air Force. It had sniper battalions, tank battalions, mortar battalions, anti-tank artillery battalions, as well as reconnaissance companies, anti-aircraft machine gun companies, engineering companies, communications companies, and transportation companies. In 1951, the brigade was reorganized into the First Air Force Marine Division, and in 1957 it was renamed the Airborne Division. In 1961, the 15th Airborne Army was formed. In 2017, the Chinese airborne force was reorganized into the Airborne Army. China's airborne troops have grown from small to large, from weak to strong. They have developed from a single branch of the army at the beginning to a multi-branch synthetic force consisting of more than 20 professional branches, including artillery, aviation, missile, special reconnaissance, and chemical defense. After more than 70 years of construction, China's airborne troops have achieved a transformation from traditional parachute operations to three-dimensional assault operations, from a single force structure to a multi-dimensional synthetic structure, and from carrying out operations behind enemy lines to full-territory mobile operations, forming a heavy-duty full-domain direct access and air-ground integrated joint combat capability, and becoming an important winning force that can play a key role at critical moments and in critical locations.

The position of airborne troops in modern warfare is becoming increasingly important. The world's military powers all attach great importance to it. Airborne troops are accelerating their development towards systematization, integration, specialization, modularization and intelligence.

Expert profile: Jiang Mingyuan, professor at the Air Force Command College, colonel rank, leader of the military equipment discipline, specially appointed expert of the China Military Equipment Branch, deputy director of the Air Force Equipment Professional Committee, one of the first batch of high-level talents, has been engaged in teaching and scientific research of military equipment for 37 years, has written more than 120 research reports and published academic papers, completed 19 monographs and textbooks, and won 29 awards at the Air Force level or above. He enjoys the special allowance of the State Council, the first-class allowance for outstanding professional and technical personnel in the military, and won the Army Talent Training Award.

Produced by: Popular Science China Military Technology Frontier

Author: Jiang Mingyuan Air Force Command College

Planning: Jin He

Producer: Guangming Online Science Department