I see what you mean, but I ment Paratroopers not Air Mobile or Air Cav, using Paratroopers against a modern enemy with modern air defences would be suicide. But still the Paratrooper exists as an elite fighting man, even if his skills can not be used on a modern battle field.
I suppose the Germans are realising that with the radical cuts in there armoured reserve.
A good point but remember the #1 priority is control of the airspace before any offensive operation can be started. That has always been most important and if you look at the history of such operations you will always see at least the effort to do so has always preceded an airborne drop, amphib op....ect
There are some campaigns that can only be fought with the use of troops who put their "knees in the breeze". Just look at the importance the Chinese put on airborne troops, in fact there are many nations that keep and maintain parachute brigades and regiments. The USA, in recent history, has dropped parachute troops once in Vietnam, in Grenada, in Panama, and twice in Iraq. In the last four drops the troops were tasked with the most important mission, and the one we will probably see in the future, of securing airfields.
And lets remember you cant drop an entire division using helicopters. I think if anything the use of parachute troops will get even more important.
If there is a catalyst I'm talking about it would be "mobility" and "multi-mission capability". Nothing represents these concepts better then airborne troops and Land forces which are truly "multi-mission" capable pose a huge problem for an enemy. In Gulf-1 the Iraqis had to defend against three possible fronts. The southern front, the eastern front against a huge marine amphib force in the Gulf, and a 3rd front that would have been opened at our choosing using the coalition parachute regiments we had available.
