With the need for a more agile and mobile force, do you believe the army should expand its airborne operations?

A full airborne division and several other airborne brigades are plenty for our purposes today. Airborne forces today are not used to jump in behind enemy lines like they have in wars past. The primary purpose of airborne forces is to seize aerial ports of debarkation (APOD) in preparation for follow on forces to air land and off load personnel and equipment. In most cases where we would be looking at entering major conflict, the APODs would likely be secured by SOF or Rangers as opposed to a regular army airborne brigade. Once they seize an airfield, any unit not just airborne forces can air land and continue on with the mission at hand. There is no need to jump in additional forces once the airfield is secure as this would lead to increased injuries, closure of the airfield for a short period of time, ect. As long as we have units like the 82nd Airborne Division and our plethora of SOF units trained in airfield seizure operations we can deploy a large force very rapidly throughout the world.

I have spent three years in 10th Special Forces Group and three years in the 82nd Airborne division and although I am all about airborne and the history of airborne I would have to say airborne operations as we know them today are obsolete. In 2010 I was in 2nd BDE, 82nd ABN DIV and we were part of the Global Response Force (GRF). Four days after the January 2010 Haiti earthquake we were on planes headed to Haiti to conduct HA/DR operations. Even though the buildings at the main airport were damaged the runway and airfield remained undamaged. Because the airfield was operational we were air landed as opposed to air dropped to minimize casualties.

So what I am getting at is as long as there are major APODs secure to conduct air lands their is no need to continue dropping paratroopers. The same planes that drop airborne forces into the fight are the same planes that air land other units and equipment. So it really isn't a matter of getting forces to the fight quickly it is just how you want to deliver them.