LIGHT INFANTRY
The subject of the Canadian Airborne Regiment
has come up again. Aficionados of the unit are campaigning for its
re-instatement. It raises the question; do paratroopers have a place in modern
warfare?
Airborne soldiers are in the final analysis
light infantry. Light infantry fill a limited but occasionally useful place in
spectrum of war. At its simplest light infantry are soldiers armed with not
much more then rifles and equipped with not much more then jeeps that are best
used in a variety of peacekeeping and constabulary situations. Their best
points are that they can be moved swiftly and have a limited logistics
footprint. Their drawbacks include a lack of firepower and armour. The danger
is that dedicated light infantry will be used improperly, as emergency
reinforcements in deteriorating military or political situations. At which point
they begin to refer to themselves as “speed bumps” and moral has been known to
suffer.
It is this limited usefulness and
predilection for misuse that inclines many in the Canadian Armed Forces against
the concept of dedicated airborne formations. As well, nobody seems to believe
that large scale parachute operations are ever again going to play a part in
modern warfare. Against these arguments adherents of the regiment can only
argue the case for northern deployments of a parachute force in disaster relief
situations.
There is a use for the Canadian Airborne
Regiment. As well as firepower and mass (armour) there is a third component to
mastery and survival on the battlefield and that is maneuver. In this case
maneuver brought about by helicopters. This new form of “vertical envelopment”
seems like a rational evolution of the airborne ideal. As a battalion sized
helicopter borne and equipped force it would only need to keep one company jump
qualified at any given time to be able to meet the limited need for parachute
forces. More important it would be a focus for the development of helicopter
doctrine within the Canadian forces. With a new and potent force of CH-47 heavy
lift helicopters coming into service and with the need for a replacement for
our Griffon utility helicopters beginning to show itself on the horizon, now is
the time to think about how to use these aircraft for more then just logistic
support. An airmobile force would concentrate resources as well as minds and
give the Canadian forces an important new capability it currently lacks.
