The Airborne Forces used to be called paratroopers, and because the way they moved was by airplane, and after arriving at the designated area, they parachuted to the ground to fight, so most countries linked the Airborne Forces with the Air Force, and the same is true of our country. However, there is a difference between the Airborne Forces and the Air Force in the usual sense, and this topic will be discussed in this article.
Parachutes, together with soldiers, form a combat force that can fall from the sky behind enemy lines, which appeared around the 20th century.
In the twenties and thirties, it was used on a large scale in World War II, among which the American Airborne 101st Division played in movies and TV series was the most famous, and many people had heard of its name.
In the early days, paratroopers were given the simple task of carrying out a combat mission behind enemy lines, and their equipment was not much different from that of ordinary armies except for parachutes. At that time, paratroopers were functionally used as an army, and American paratroopers still belong to the army and are called army airborne units. Correspondingly, NATO countries with airborne troops also group paratroopers under the name of the army, which is generally called "army air assault unit".
In Asia, countries such as Japan, India, and South Korea, which have the ability to project troops from the air, also classify paratroopers as land forces, because the location of operations for this force is on land, so there seems to be no problem with this definition.
China's paratroopers were established relatively late, and they officially became a branch of the armed forces in the early 60s of the last century, when they were upgraded from the earliest "Air Force Marine Brigade" and "Airborne Division" to the 15 th Army of the Airborne Forces. This number is not a serial number, but the name of the original 15th Army, the main force of the reconstruction of the Airborne Army.
Everyone may have heard of the 15th Army of the Army, and it was in the Battle of Shangganling that Huang Jiguang, Qiu Shaoyun and other combat heroes emerged. After being reorganized into an airborne army, it was transferred from the army to the air force, and was under the leadership of the then military commission air force and the air force of the Wuhan Military Region.
Some national paratroopers are the army, some are the air force, so, does it make any difference?
In terms of combat performance, there is not much difference. Paratroopers need to be able to parachute safely and skillfully, as well as possess all the combat skills of an army soldier, which need to be acquired through training.
When our army's airborne 15 th Army was reorganized, the main force of soldiers were army officers and men with rich combat experience, and what they lacked was only the skill of parachuting and landing.
In this sense, the paratrooper unit is actually an inter-service unit, and it has to use the air force's vehicles and the army's equipment to carry out combat operations, which dooms its command structure to be the common superior unit of the air force and the army. Therefore, the nature of paratroopers is the same whether they are under the name of the Air Force or the Army. The only difference is how easy it is to train.
After decades of development, the contemporary airborne troops are no longer the same as the original paratroopers. In fact, it has become a special branch of the armed forces, which belongs to the category of special forces.
Compared with the wars of the past, modern warfare has undergone tremendous changes in form, and some of them are even subversive. In the past, the scene of a large number of transport planes transporting paratroopers to the corresponding location for parachute jumping, and the sky full of umbrella flowers will basically not be reproduced.
Due to the development and improvement of the performance of anti-aircraft missiles and various types of artillery, large-scale airborne landing behind enemy lines has become a costly mode of warfare, and it is unlikely that two countries of equal strength will fight a war. It can only happen in a war between a strong country and a weak country, such as when the United States fought Iraq.
Thanks to the development of the capabilities of the ground mechanized forces, when the superior side destroys the opponent's air defense and artillery capabilities, it does not seem to be very necessary to parachute behind the enemy to fight, and the goal can be achieved only by the advance of the ground forces.
Therefore, the development direction of the contemporary airborne forces is also toward a smaller scale, more advanced equipment, and stronger combat effectiveness. The tasks carried out are also point-and-point operations such as precision strikes and key strikes, rather than being used to conduct large-scale ground operations. The Airborne Forces are also gradually transforming into special forces. This has already happened, or is happening, in some countries.
The Airborne Forces are the Air Force Marine Corps in our country, and in some countries the Air Assault Force of the Army.
No matter what name it is called or what branch of the military it belongs to, the combat mode of the airborne troops is similar, that is, through an aircraft platform, land combat equipment and personnel are projected, and operations are carried out behind enemy lines. Such joint operations cannot be coordinated by one branch of the armed forces, and must be commanded by the higher levels of the services.
With the development of modern military science and technology, the scale of the airborne troops will become more and more capable, and more combat functions behind enemy lines will be transferred to unmanned equipment. The tasks to be carried out by the Airborne Forces will also become more critical and necessary, because no country is willing to use the carefully trained special operations elite for ordinary strategic objectives.
In peacetime, the Airborne Forces also have their unique role: disaster relief.
After Wenchuan in May 2008, all communications and roads in Maoxian County, not far from Wenchuan, were cut off, and contact with the outside world was lost, and the safety of tens of thousands of residents could not be known to the outside world. At that time, more than a dozen paratroopers of our airborne troops bravely jumped off the plane over the mountainous area and went deep into the disaster area, quickly establishing local contacts with the outside world.
Such a result, except for the professional airborne troops, no other rescuers will be able to do it in a short time. These brave paratroopers have left a deep memory in people's hearts and are still praised today.