Tri-Service

Largest Military UK Parachute Drop In A Decade

16 Air Assault Brigade Prepare To Jump From RAF C-130J Hercules

Paratroopers from the 16 Air Assault Brigade have conducted the largest military parachute drop in the UK in a decade. Setting off before dawn some 200 Regulars and Reservists jumped from 4 C-130J Hercules aircraft flying out of RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.

It marks the end of an extremely busy year for the Brigade having taken part in the massive JOAX Joint Forcible Entry mission with the United States' 82nd Airborne in April.

16 Air Assault Brigade At RAF Brize Norton Ahead Of Jump

Instead of Salisbury Plain, that exercise took part across the sprawling 251 square miles of Fort Bragg in North Carolina, with 2000 troops taking part in a massed jump before spending several days engaged in fiercely contested urban warfare games.

More from Forces.tv: JOAX: The Best of Joint Forcible Entry

Last week's Exercise Musketeer Reprendre was aimed at building on the interoperability skills honed during JOAX to ensure the Air Mobility Force has the experience and capability to transfer to the A400M Atlas and C-17 Globemaster aircraft increasingly being used by the RAF.

Fifty to a plane the soldiers jumped from 600 foot in assault mode, lightly equipped and carrying weapons in order to 'hit the ground running'. The paratroopers were also sporting for the first time their re-adopted Pegasus emblems.

Recommended: PARAS Reinstate Wartime Pegasus Badge

16 Air Assault Brigade Jump Over Salisbury Plain

Brigadier Colin Weir DSO MBE, Commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, said: “This jump has also been an excellent way to mark the end of 2015, a fruitful year for the Brigade in which we have improved our interoperability with US and French paratroopers through major airborne exercises and redefined our identity and ethos through the adoption of Pegasus.

"The achievements of the soldiers who fought wearing Pegasus in the Second World War set the high standards we aim for today and our soldiers should be hugely proud to jump wearing Pegasus.”

"The RAF’s Hercules transport aircraft and Puma and Chinook support helicopters are vital in providing the air manoeuvre capability that defines 16 Air Assault Brigade’s character and role."