The Air Assault Raid: A Mission for the New Millennium.

This monograph discusses the role of the air assault raid as a tactical mission in the twenty-first century. It centers on the air assault brigade task force directed air assault raid employed across the full spectrum of conflict. This monograph assesses the current state of the air assault raid in U.S. Army training and doctrine, its weaknesses, and its potential for the future. The monograph first examines current air assault raid doctrine and FORCE XXI objectives to establish the fundamentals of the air assault raid and the goals of the twenty-first century Army. Next, the anticipated nature of twenty-first century warfare by Army futurists is discussed. Then, the paper summarizes air assault raid training results from National Training Center and Joint Readiness Training Center rotations to provide a basis for determining doctrinal and training weaknesses with the air assault raid. Each of these elements is then analyzed to determine whether the air assault raid has a role to play in tactical operations of the next century. The principal findings of this study indicate that the air assault raid is conducted rarely at the training centers and few units understand air assault raid doctrine. Additionally, loss of surprise and poor intelligence preparation of the battlefield surfaced as key weaknesses in air assault raid training, resulting in prohibitively high casualties. An assessment of emerging technologies offers hope in correcting these weaknesses. The monograph calls for an increased interest by the Army in training and developing the air assault raid as a tactical mission for the next century.