Tactics 101 038 – Air Assault

by PFF on 15 de maio de 2009 · 2 comments

Air Assault A Armchair General traz este mês o primeiro artigo de uma série sobre assalto aeromóvel. Vocês tem a obrigação de ler.

The air assault task force should be assigned only missions that take advantage of their superior mobility and should not be employed in roles requiring deliberate operations over an extended period of time.
Air assault forces always fight as a combined arms team.
The availability of critical aviation assets must be accounted for as a major factor in any operation.
Planning must be centralized and precise while execution must be aggressive and decentralized.
Air assault operations may be conducted at night or during adverse weather, but require more planning and preparation time in those cases.
Unit tactical integrity must be maintained throughout an air assault. When planning loads, squads are normally loaded intact on the same helicopter, with platoons located in the same serial. This ensures fighting unit integrity upon landing.
Fire support planning must provide for suppressive fires along flight routes and in the vicinity of landing zones. Priority for fires must be to the suppression of enemy air defense systems (SEAD).
Infantry operations are not fundamentally changed by the integration of aviation—tempo and distance are dramatically changed, however.
Although mechanized infantry units are not frequently employed in air assault operations, they can conduct such operations on a limited scale. Since it would be unexpected, such operations may be the decisive.
Typical air assault operations conducted by mechanized forces are river-crossing operations, seizure of key terrain, raids, and rear area combat operations. An air assault task force is most effectively employed in environments where limited lines of communication are available to the enemy, where he lacks air superiority and effective air defense systems.

Nos próximos meses serão abordados cada um dos planos previstos no planejamento de uma operação deste tipo. Vocês podem se adiantar um pouco revendo a minha missão de treinamento no AATF. Veja também os artigos anteriores da série Tactics 101.

Air assault operations! The authors of the continuing monthly series Tactics 100 on the Armchair General Website kick off a string of articles exploring mobile air assault – what it can do, what it can’t, and how to employ it.