airborne

Airborne forces are ground combat units carried by aircraft and airdropped into battle zones, typically by parachuting. Foot soldiers serving an airborne force are known as airborne infantry or paratroopers.
The main advantage of airborne forces is their ability to be deployed into combat zones without land passage, as long as the airspace is accessible. Formations of airborne forces are limited only by the number and size of their transport aircraft; a sizeable force can appear "out of the sky" behind enemy lines in merely hours if not minutes, an action known as vertical envelopment.
On the other hand, airborne forces typically lack enough supplies for prolonged combat; they are much better equipped for establishing an airhead than for long-term occupation. Due to their necessary slow descent, they are also vulnerable to anti-air fires and ambushes by ground defenders, against whom they are usually outgunned. Airborne operations are also particularly sensitive to weather conditions, which can be dangerous to both the paratroopers and airlifters. Advances in VTOL technologies (helicopter and tiltrotor) since World War II have brought increased flexibility, and air assaults have largely replaced paratroops (and entirely gliders) for small- to medium-scale airborne insertion. Some infantry fighting vehicles have also been modified for paradropping with infantry to provide some heavier firepower.

View More On Wikipedia.org