In military history, there are numerous weird amalgams like this. "Mounted infantry" used to amuse me - but its logical. It refers to infantry who ride to battle but fight on foot.
Actually airborne cavalry would logically be a side gunner (i.e. to be cavalry you need to fight from your "ride"). Logically the "airborne cavalry" are really "airborne infantry" unless the helos transport their fighting vehicles for them - at which point they would indeed logically be "airborne cavalry"...
Actually no. The Airborne Cav has helos with door gunners but an actual helicopter assault is done by the assault copters (Apache, Cobra, etc.) with only a pilot and co-pilot/WSO. These aircraft don't carry door guuners, infantry, or cargo of any kind but use mounted guns/missiles fired by the pilot and/or WSO; they attack in formation in an assault mode very, very much like a mounted cavalry charge.
Thus the difference between "Air" Cavalry and "Airborne" Cavalry. For that matter the proper term (ARmy term) for the latter you describe is "Heliborne" as "Airborne" is reserved for troops delivered by parachute(although most, if not all, Air Cav units belong to the 101st Airborne Div.) The current Marine Corps term for it is "Helicast" whereas the older Marine Corps term was "Vertical Envelopment."
Here's a link showing most of these applications: www.metacafe.com/watch/844927/apache_attack_helicopter The first minute shows the assault/cav mode while the remainder shows various modes of helicopter attack: heliborne, search and destroy, etc. Mostly Army helos but a few Marine ones, and I even saw at least one Air Force Pavehawk.
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