U.S. Paratroopers assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division and British paratroopers assigned to the 2nd Parachute Regiment are pictured above being loaded into U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster aircraft.
In the early hours of Saturday the 8th of May, the joint force of British and American paratroopers jumped into Estonia from an American C-17 flying from the United States.
British soldiers made two jumps stateside with the 82nd before loading on C-17’s from Fort Bragg to participate in the Joint Forcible Entry earlier this week in Estonia, making three jumps total and earning their U.S. jump wings.
Also involved in the exercise were paratroopers with the Polish 6th Airborne Brigade, Dutch 11th Air Assault Brigade and Romanian 495th Parachute Battalion.
The U.S. Army say that the activity is being conducted in preparation for Swift Response, a Defender Europe linked exercise involving Paratroopers from 10 NATO nations.
Swift Response 21 is designed to enhance the ability of NATO to “leverage multinational cooperation to insert ground forces rapidly, and appropriately respond to a potential crisis anywhere in the world”.
Maj. Gen. Joe Jarrard, Deputy Commanding General, U.S. Army Europe and Africa, was quoted as saying:
“Conducting military movements across European borders is key to the readiness of our NATO allies and partners. Swift Response is a multinational exercise that stresses systems and proceedings between partners and allies to test multi-domain capabilities.
The objectives of this exercise integrate Army airborne and land operations with joint air support and special operations against an opposing enemy force.”
Swift Response 21 took place in Romania, Estonia and Bulgaria encompassing over 7,000 paratroopers from ten different nations.
The near-simultaneous joint forcible entry operation ended in Romania on a “sunny cloudless day”, add the U.S. Army.
“The clear blue sky was decorated with parachutes and aircraft from five different partner and allied countries. The synchronized effort was an apparent display of NATO’s interoperable capabilities.”
Swift Response is the first of a series of exercises associated with ‘DEFENDER Europe 21’, itself a large-scale US Army-led exercise designed to build readiness and interoperability between the US, NATO allies and partner militaries.
Any plans to modify our A400’s and C17’s for para drops once they scrap the Hercs?
They have no choice but to modify the A400s and C17s with Hercs going soon . but you would wonder why it was not done at the production stage .
Was an optional extra and we had the Hercs so didnt need it at the time, UK was more interested in using it as a platform for air dropping pallets than soldiers.
So basically what we have now is. Two fleets of pallet droppers and one fleet of soon to go Para dropping aircraft.
No need to modify either aircraft type. Only a question of obtaining a UK release to service clearance qualification which entails completing a comprehensive safety case and test procedure for either aircraft.
A400s being done, trials have been ongoing, soon to be sorted.
I doubt PARA will ever drop into a defended environment again.
However, PARA have an ethos which is hard to fault when it comes to aggression against the enemy (but not the RMP) and building up this ethos across nations is a great thing.
I wonder who won the post exercise pub fight between the Poles and Brits (any MP doubtless lost).
Well done guys.
The Paratrooper is still a force to be reckoned with in modern warfare
But only If we have Perfectly good Aeroplanes to jump out of ! 😎
Minor details Capt, minor details!!😂
😂 ….. indeed mate but I too believe that if Man was meant to fly, God or the MOD would have given them either Wings or Para chutes ….. Feathers would be the third option but only for the lighter recruits.
2nd Parachute Regiment?
Aside from equipment, what are people’s opinion of the Romanian paras? They seem to be stepping up in NATO exercises a la Estonia and Poland
Surely their cap badge must include the vampire bat?
Interesting that the para’s flew all the way from Fort Bragg to jump. In the early 80’s when they ran the big Autumn exercises, including the US Reforger Exercises, the US troops would get a medal for flying from Continental US to Europe. I wonder if 2 Para got given one !!!!!
Sorry to put a damper on this but with the long range missiles that the enemy has today i dont think paras will get anywhere near where they will be needed
You don’t think they’d be able to get to a port in Northern Europe?
Not quite that simple, yes a contested airspace would be an issue, but, if we were to do a Bde sized lob it would be with other assets and formations, to both supress and support. Having the capability ensures the opposition ALWAYS has to take that into consideration and have a strategy and assets availble to deal with it, which, takes up vital manpower, equipment and planning considerations.
2nd Parachute Regiment…..
We have The Parachute Regiment, composed of 1 PARA, 2 PARA, 3 PARA, and 4 PARA ( R )
2nd Parachute Regiment implies multiple Para Regiments each of Para Battalions. When were we last at that level? 1st and 6th Airborne?
Regardless of the usefulness or not of mass airborne drops, the capability and ethos of the Parachute Regiment is needed. Firstly in case such a drop is needed in future, and secondly due to the large number from Para Reg that progress to UKSF in comparison to other regiments, often via Pathfinder Platoon.
Leave them well alone. Indeed 16 AA needs beefing up.
Didn’t the strategic review state that 16xx was to get a 4th infantry battalion.
It did. Currently 2 and 3 Para and a RGR Battalion.
The areas I was referring to regards “beefing up” we’re sub units of its enablers from the CS and CSS arms that were all reduced in A2020R.