I was in the 82nd Airborne Division (which is one of the airborne divisions in the United States Army) so I can provide an inside perspective on this.
The frontline infantry all know this already; it is a running joke. At least once a year a special airborne training operation (colloquially just called “jumps”) is held with members of Congress as guests, for the singular purpose of impressing them and keeping our share of the budget.
I expect the United States will sustain airborne operations for longer than other countries because we are the only country which can reliably compensate for many of the identified weaknesses through airpower, like negating enemy airpower or armored formations in the target jump zone.
That being said, there do seem to be advantages to having an airborne outfit, although this has nothing to do with the strategic value of airborne operations. First and foremost is the twice-a-volunteer phenomenon; in the US Army, you need to additionally volunteer to go to airborne training, separately from volunteering for enlistment. This is a filter that ensures a higher-than-average motivation level for the troops. Units in the 82nd also aggressively propagandize elite status on the basis of having airborne training, which cashes out in higher expectations across a variety of metrics like physical fitness and skill with specialized weapon systems.
Airborne troops are also partially inoculated against a notoriously severe problem that commonly infects military formations of every kind: the inability to think on your feet. The two common symptoms are failure to adapt to the situation at hand (too devoted to doctrine, for example) or refusal to take initiative (just sitting there while the situation gets worse in the absence of orders). This comes from the airborne operation experience directly—a jump is at best bounded chaos, and what has to happen in order to succeed is just to link up with whichever guys you landed near and do your best. This means small group initiative and adaptation are viewed as the building block for unit success.
As a disclaimer, through a series of unusual events I never conducted a jump, and am not formally trained, so these observations are from doing jump setup, cleanup, and other supporting functions (and repeating the indoctrination).
I was in the 82nd Airborne Division (which is one of the airborne divisions in the United States Army) so I can provide an inside perspective on this.
The frontline infantry all know this already; it is a running joke. At least once a year a special airborne training operation (colloquially just called “jumps”) is held with members of Congress as guests, for the singular purpose of impressing them and keeping our share of the budget.
I expect the United States will sustain airborne operations for longer than other countries because we are the only country which can reliably compensate for many of the identified weaknesses through airpower, like negating enemy airpower or armored formations in the target jump zone.
That being said, there do seem to be advantages to having an airborne outfit, although this has nothing to do with the strategic value of airborne operations. First and foremost is the twice-a-volunteer phenomenon; in the US Army, you need to additionally volunteer to go to airborne training, separately from volunteering for enlistment. This is a filter that ensures a higher-than-average motivation level for the troops. Units in the 82nd also aggressively propagandize elite status on the basis of having airborne training, which cashes out in higher expectations across a variety of metrics like physical fitness and skill with specialized weapon systems.
Airborne troops are also partially inoculated against a notoriously severe problem that commonly infects military formations of every kind: the inability to think on your feet. The two common symptoms are failure to adapt to the situation at hand (too devoted to doctrine, for example) or refusal to take initiative (just sitting there while the situation gets worse in the absence of orders). This comes from the airborne operation experience directly—a jump is at best bounded chaos, and what has to happen in order to succeed is just to link up with whichever guys you landed near and do your best. This means small group initiative and adaptation are viewed as the building block for unit success.
As a disclaimer, through a series of unusual events I never conducted a jump, and am not formally trained, so these observations are from doing jump setup, cleanup, and other supporting functions (and repeating the indoctrination).