Some 50 paratroopers and medics from Army Reserve units have worked alongside their regular counterparts in 16 Air Assault Brigade, including an assault by helicopter and rapid air landing to capture the airfield at Kinloss Barracks.

Reservist medics from 144 Parachute Medical Squadron have been working as combat medical technicians with the infantry and within treatment facilities set up by 16 Medical Regiment, their regular parent unit. Major Yukmo Kan, an anaesthetist at Southend University Hospital, is working as a medical officer.

The 39-year-old is in charge of triaging and treating casualties arriving at the military equivalent of a hospital’s accident and emergency unit.

Maj Kan said: “I joined up to challenge myself and use my clinical skills in a very different environment. This is the first brigade exercise I’ve been on and I’ve really appreciated the scale of the deployment. As an individual, you are a cog within a cog, but everyone has to do their job for the whole machine to work.

“In the four years I’ve been a reservist I’ve seen a real change in culture and we are now fully integrated with regulars. This exercise has been a great opportunity to cement the working relationships we have already formed with 16 Medical Regiment.”