The British are here.
More than 1,000 paratroopers from the United Kingdom are on Fort Bragg for the next month to train with the 82nd Airborne Division.
It's the largest multinational contingent on Fort Bragg in at least 20 years, officials said. But it's also a sign of things to come.
Leaders with the 82nd Airborne Division have said Fort Bragg would play host to more and more international partners as the force seeks to improve its working relationships with allied airborne forces.
The U.K. paratroopers will train alongside the 82nd Airborne's 2nd Brigade Combat Team in the coming weeks, building up to a Combined Joint Operational Access Exercise in mid-April.
Fort Bragg's international guests largely arrived last week, the first visit to America's largest military installation for most.
On Monday, their unfamiliar uniforms stood out as soldiers walked around Fort Bragg. Hundreds more gathered at the Advanced Airborne School for training ahead of jumps later this week.
The soldiers mostly come from the 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, 16th Air Assault Brigade, also known as 3 Para.
On Fort Bragg Monday, the soldiers learned how to don, control and remove the U.S. Army's T-11 parachute. The parachute is heavier and maneuvers differently from its U.K. counterpart, said U.K. Pvt. Joe Lettman.
Lettman said soldiers have been looking forward to the training on Fort Bragg.
"It'll be a new experience for all of us," he said.
The U.K. paratroopers will make their first jumps with the T-11s starting Tuesday.
Maj. Craig Arnold, commander of the Advanced Airborne School, said they would be ready.
"The basic principals of being a paratrooper stays the same," he said. "We jump out of a plane and land."
Arnold said the training for the British soldiers on Fort Bragg was meant to prepare them for the differences in U.S. equipment and jump procedures.
It's also the early stages toward better mingling U.S. and U.K. troops during the training.
Officials from both sides have been working toward making their forces more interchangeable over the past year.
A training exercise called Pegasus Cypher earlier this year tackled artillery operations.
The coming exercise will build on those efforts and others to integrate airborne operations with the help of the Royal Air Force's newest ride, the Atlas A400M. The cargo plane - bigger than a C-130 but smaller than a C-17 - arrived at Pope Field carrying British Army gear Monday afternoon.
The plane was a week old, its pilots said, and only the second of its model to join the Royal Air Force.
"It's the aircraft of the future," said Flight Lieutenant Mark Brodie.
Brodie was part of a 17-man crew who made the trip across the Atlantic Ocean.
But the plane - which had clocked 40 flight hours before its arrival at Pope Field - only requires a three-person crew, Brodie said.
The British Air Force has plans to field 22 A400M planes, replacing C-130J cargo planes. The larger planes are faster and more advanced.
"You can double the payload and double the distance," said Flight Lieutenant Si Fenton.
It also can hold about 116 paratroopers for airborne missions.
While jumps this week will be from U.S. planes, plans eventually call for the A400M to be involved as well.
The U.K. paratroopers' visit is the latest in a series of every-growing outreach between the 82nd Airborne and its British Airborne counterparts, the 16th Air Assault Brigade.
Both organizations are responsible for their nation's rapid response airborne forces, and ties between the two have grown for the better part of two years, led in part by the 82nd Airborne Division's deputy commanding general of interoperability, Brigadier Giles Hill.
Hill, a one-star British general serving under the American two-star command, previously commanded the British Army's 16th Air Assault Brigade.
Hill has been working toward better cooperation with several allies - including Italian, Dutch and Polish paratroopers - involving small units of each in training on and off Fort Bragg. Efforts are furthest along with the British.
Leaders from each army signed an agreement outlining a strategic vision between the forces in 2013.
Since then, cooperation has progressed from staff talks and exchanges of a small number of troops, to the inclusion of a British Army company in training last year and now, the exercise involving a full British battle group.
Officials have said the growing cooperation was important in today's world, where any mission, no matter how sudden, would likely have to be an international affair due to shrinking budgets and increased global threats.
Along the way, each side has learned to work together, despite having different communications equipment, ammunition and other gear.
"It's figuring it out, training on it, employing it, then standardizing for the future," said Maj. Rob Lodewick, public affairs officer for 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.
———
©2015 The Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, N.C.)
Visit The Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, N.C.) at www.fayobserver.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
No comments:
Post a Comment