Air Assault - Today

Today

In the United States military, the air assault mission is now the primary role of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). This unit is the Army's only division-sized helicopter-borne fighting force. Many of its soldiers are graduates of the Air Assault course qualifying them to insert and extract using fast rope and rappel means from a hover in addition to the ordinary walk on and off from an airlanded helicopter. Since the 101st relinquished its parachute capability in 1968, the 82nd Airborne Division is the United States Army's only remaining parachute division.

The 10th Mountain Division Light Infantry regularly perform air assault operations, as do many other US Army infantry units. On September 19, 1994, the 1st Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division conducted the Army’s first air assault from an aircraft carrier, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, as part of Operation Uphold Democracy. This force consisted of 54 helicopters and almost 2,000 soldiers. This was the Army's largest operation from an aircraft carrier since the Doolittle Raid of World War II.

All U.S. Marine Corps ground units are trained in basic air assault tactics and capable of performing helicopter borne operations that require them to fast rope from a hovering helicopter. The U.S. Marines also specialize in conducting air assault that launches from specialized helicopter carrying naval ships during amphibious warfare.

There are other major "conventional" units in the United States Army that have parachute capabilities; the separate 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, based in Italy and Germany, and the Alaska-based 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, which has its division headquarters in Hawaii, and the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 509th Infantry Regiment based in Fort Polk, Louisiana supporting the Joint Readiness Training Center as the opposing force for training rotational units. The 173rd ABCT parachuted into Northern Iraq during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. These units are considered regional quick reaction parachute forces for the Pacific and Atlantic regions.

The 16th Air Assault Brigade of the British Army is Britain's main air assault body. It comprises units of paratroopers from the Parachute Regiment and light infantry units trained in helicopter insertion, as well as light tanks and artillery.

Britain's 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines are also highly experienced in air assault, both for boarding ships and in land attacks, see article above.