CHAPTER 5: The OPFOR in the Offense

5-14 AIRBORNE OPERATIONS.

    a. Key Concepts.

• Rapid deployment over great distances.
• Virtually all-weather employment.
• Self-sufficient and air-droppable.
• Trained to fight across the range of military operations.
• Battalion-sized operations most common.
• Land in unopposed areas, then move to objective, defend until linkup occurs.
• Usually employed by the army commander.

    b. Support to the Offense.

• Seize vital ground, bridgeheads, defiles.
• Destroy higher level C2, political as well as military.
• Block routes used by reserves or withdrawing forces.
• Destruction of logistics installations, especially fuel and ammunition.
• Disrupt transportation infrastructure.

    c. Conduct of Airborne Operations.

• Requires air superiority, even if achieved only temporarily locally.
• Favorable combat ratios in the landing zones and objective area are essential.
• A battalion can be lifted in a single lift.
• If an entire brigade is needed, airborne elements would have to be shuttled:

• first battalion seizes the airfield.
• follow-on forces would then be air-landed.

• Speed and Surprise are critical.
• Supported by air and missile strikes, and artillery.

    d. Once on the ground:

• Consolidate and conduct reconnaissance.
• Move to objective in pre-battle formation.
• Position air defense, artillery, and engineers to support the attack on the final objective.
• Assume battle formation within 1000-200 meters of the objective.
• Attack in one echelon against a weak BLUFOR, two echelons against a strong BLUFOR.
• Once the objective is secure, establish 360-degree defense using unit strongpoints.
• Either await linkup or fight back to friendly lines.

    e. Drop Zone Selection.

• Typical battalion DZ is 3 km by 4 km.
• Typical company DZ is 1 km by 1 to 1.5 km.
• As close to final objective as possible, but no more than 20 km.