Airborne Military parachuting or gliding form of inserting personnel or supplies.
Purpose Delivering personnel, equipment, or supplies.
Origins Attributed to Italian troops on November 1927.
Airborne forces are
military units, usually
light infantry, set up to be
moved by aircraft and "dropped" into battle, typically by
parachute. Thus, they can be placed behind enemy lines, and have the capability to deploy almost anywhere with little warning. The formations are limited only by the number and size of their aircraft, so given enough capacity a huge force can appear "out of nowhere" in minutes, an action referred to as
vertical envelopment.