British and US airborne forces make transatlantic drop to demonstrate joint capability.

British paratroopers have jumped into Latvia alongside their US counterparts to show their ability to strike hard and fast in response to crises anywhere in the world. The soldiers from C Company, 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment (C Coy, 3 PARA), part of Colchester-based 16 Air Assault Brigade, parachuted into the Adazi training area alongside American troops from 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division – known as “1 Fury”.

British paratroopers have jumped into Latvia alongside their US 82 Airborne counterparts to show their ability to strike hard and fast in response to crises anywhere in the world. (Picture source: UK MoD)

In an impressive display of reach and capability, the British and American paratroopers flew into the Baltics directly from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in a fleet of US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, before jumping into the drop zone (DZ) together with heavy equipment including vehicles and vital stores.
This jump comes as part of exercise Saber Stike, a major US-led NATO training exercise spanning the Baltic states and involving around 18,000 troops from 19 member nations, designed to further develop allied interoperability and hone the participating soldiers’ understanding of one another’s tactics and operating procedures.

The preceding days saw the men of C Coy training and living alongside their American partners, doing several training jumps on US parachutes, and conducting dynamic live-firing packages on the ranges at Fort Bragg.

Speaking moments after landing, Colonel Andrew Jackson, Deputy Commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, described the exercise as ‘a clear and unmistakable show of airborne strength on a global scale’: “There’s a reason why most of the world’s reference armies still maintain an airborne capability; it’s because in strategic terms, it’s not possible to get this many men and this much equipment anywhere on the globe so quickly by any other means. This is a very public statement that the 82nd Airborne Division GRF (Global Response Force), with 16 Brigade as part of it, is able to project significant force at short notice.”

Exercises like this are crucial in developing the skills and self-belief of young paratroopers at the start of their career. The troops have jumped four or five times in the last few weeks from different types of aircraft, with different rigs and different parachutes.