[WhiskeyPapa]

''Vertical envelopment'' could be a hot new techno band or a Back Bay zoning scheme. In fact, it's a term used by Pentagon officials -- masters of warspeak -- to describe the unleashing of massive air power on Baghdad, selectively targeting key installations, in the first phase of the war against Iraq.

Vertical envelopment is the term for helicopter assault.

Walt

[FRMAG]

Actually Vertical Envlopment is one term that flipped over to helicopters from Airborne operations. One of the first books written on the employment of parachute troops was titled "The Theroy and Practice of Vertical Envelopment."

When we started using helicopters in battle sometime in the Korean War and later in Viet Nam the term was simply transferred over though it is pretty much interchangable from Airborne Troops to Heliborne operations.