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Soldiers from 16 Air Assault Brigade are taking part in Exercise Joint Warrior in Scotland to train for the resumption of their role as the British Army’s rapid reaction force.
More than 1,000 troops from the brigade are taking part in the two-week exercise which also involves land, sea and air forces from ten nations.
The training for 16 Air Assault Brigade is a key step in preparing for the Airborne Task Force (ABTF) role which will see the Colchester-based soldiers maintain a force ready to deploy anywhere in the world at short notice.
Commanders from the 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment Battle Group get their bearings after disembarking an RAF C-130 Hercules transport aircraft during Exercise Joint Warrior.
The scenario for Joint Warrior involves activity in the ‘Galloway Enclave’, an area disputed by two fictional nations called Caledonia and Dragonia which are divided by economic and ethnic factors.
An insurgency, supported by neither country, has sprung up in Galloway. Both nations have invited NATO to send a stabilisation force to the area to create the conditions for a UN peacekeeping force to take control.
The two-week-long exercise began on 3 October 2011 with the troops of the 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment (3 PARA) Battle Group swooping in on RAF C-130 Hercules transport planes to secure West Freugh and Castle Kennedy airfields in rapid air landing operations.
Members of the 3 PARA Battle Group disembark an RAF C-130 Hercules transport aircraft at West Freugh airfield in Scotland.
Soldiers from the 3 PARA Battle Group get ready to move out.
A main operating base was established at West Freugh and the soldiers fanned out across the Galloway countryside to achieve their mission to stabilise the area.
The insurgents were engaged in battle and defeated, with the 3 PARA Battle Group also linking up with local security forces to conduct joint exercises.
Corporal Barry Horsethorn, from 4 Platoon, 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, shouts out orders.
Soldiers from the 3 PARA Battle Group involved in an assault on an enemy position.
The exercise culminates in a battle group operation to evacuate civilians from a village threatened by insurgents, simulating a non-combat mission to rescue UK citizens caught overseas in a hostile situation.
Soldiers from the 3 PARA Battle Group patrol with Scimitar armoured vehicles of the Household Cavalry Regiment.
The 3 PARA Battle Group is based around the airborne infantry of 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment and a company from The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 5th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland (5 SCOTS), with the artillery, engineering, signals, logistics and medical support it needs to conduct operations. At the beginning of November 2011, the 3 PARA Battle Group steps up as the ABTF, providing the Army’s high-readiness, light, short-duration intervention unit.
16 Air Assault Brigade is the British Army’s largest brigade, with 8,000 soldiers, combining the speed and agility of airborne and air assault troops with the potency of Apache attack helicopters. The brigade deployed to Afghanistan between October 2010 and April 2011.
