PARATROOPERS from five partner armies have been training to jump with British military parachutes in preparation for a major airborne exercise this summer.

Exercise Pegasus International has seen US, French, Canadian, Polish and Belgian paratroopers jump with the British low level parachute while British soldiers from 16 Air Assault Brigade, based in Colchester, qualified to use the French Ensemble de Parachutage du Combattant.

Training took place at RAF Brize Norton’s leading parachute training school.

It aimed to ensure there was inter-operability between airborne forces ahead of Exercise Swift Response 16.

More than 5,000 soldiers from ten countries will be training together in Germany and Poland this month and next to improve their ability to operate together when responding to international crises.

Troops from 16 Air Assault Brigade and 3 Para Battlegroup will be taking part in the US Army Europe-led exercise.

Colonel Graham Livingstone, who is the deputy commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, said: “As airborne forces, the fundamental building block for working with our partners is that we are able to insert by parachute using each other’s equipment and aircraft.

"This training is about developing our ability to do that, both with our core US and French partners and wider NATO allies.

“On Swift Response, we will be working closely with the US 82nd Airborne Division and French 11e Brigade Parachutiste, with their paratroopers who have completed this course jumping alongside our soldiers under British canopies.”

To earn their British parachute wings the overseas soldiers had to complete conversion ground training and do a day and night jump from an RAF C-130 Hercules.

Captain AJ Vogel, of the US Army’s 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, said: “The British LLP is quite different to the T-11 parachute that we jump with, so this is an interesting opportunity to build familiarity with the equipment and procedures used by British paratroopers."