British and American paratroopers are training to be ready to deploy together on operations around the world.

Colchester-based B Company, 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment (B Coy, 3 PARA) is on exercise in the USA with their counterparts in the 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment (1-325th AIR), nicknamed the Red Falcons.

The month-long training at Fort Bragg in North Carolina is part of work to develop interoperability between 16 Air Assault Brigade and the 82nd Airborne Division, which both serve as their respective armies’ rapid reaction forces. Exercise Red Falcon began with a period of familiarisation training for the two units to learn about each others’ weaponry, communications systems and tactics. A week-long field exercise saw the joint force parachuted in to a fictional country threatened by a neighbour and facing internal disorder. The troops were tasked to carry out a non-combatant evacuation operation to extract British and American citizens. As the security situation worsened, the exercise culminated in the troops carrying out a helicopter-borne attack on an insurgent base.

Major Haydn Gaukroger, Officer Commanding B Coy 3 PARA, said it was “absolutely critical” to build links to international allies.

“I’ve been in the army for 14 years and never been on an independent operation,” he said. “Unilateral action is not really the way of the future and it certainly hasn’t been the way of the immediate past either.

“I think the main thing for our paratroopers to take back from this exercise is that they have their brothers here in the 82nd Airborne Division. We’ve had pretty much the same history all the way from the Second World War and have very similar role, capabilities and techniques. The soldiers have been taken aback by how similar it is being with the Red Falcons here as it is being within 3 PARA.”

3 PARA is currently serving as the Air Assault Task Force, held at high readiness to deploy on operations around the world. 1-325th AIR is training to take on the US Army’s equivalent role as the Global Reaction Force. Further joint training is being planned to ensure the two forces would be able to work together on an operational deployment.

Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Burgess, Commanding Officer of 1-325th AIR, said: “It’s really been a unique and phenomenal experience. The day-to-day, bringing them in as part of our team, and operating on the ground, has been seamless. It’s been a pleasure to work with B Coy 3 PARA, which is a very disciplined and professional organization.”