British Armed Forces

[vor033]

Sixteen hundred soldiers from 16 Air Assault Brigade are training to maintain their role as the British Army’s Rapid Reaction Force.

Exercise Joint Warrior involves a total of 8,000 tri-Service and multinational personnel in exercises around the UK.

MOD/Crown Copyright 2012

[vor033]

Sixteen hundred soldiers from 16 Air Assault Brigade are training to maintain their role as the British Army’s Rapid Reaction Force.

Exercise Joint Warrior involves a total of 8,000 tri-Service and multinational personnel in exercises around the UK.

Photos by Mark Owens/HQScotland MOD/Crown Copyright 2012

Forward Controller Sergeant Adam Hill brings the paratroopers in to West Freugh during the 3 PARA drop from the French Airforce's C160 Aircraft.

Troops from 5 SCOTS are inserted into West Freugh Airfield by RAF Chinook helicopters during Exercise Joint Warrior.

Troops from 5 SCOTS are inserted into West Freugh Airfield by a French Airforce C160 Aircraft during Exercise Joint Warrior.

Troops from 5 SCOTS casevac a 'wounded comrade' during Exercise Joint Warrior.

[vor033]

Nearly 10,000 people gathered in front of Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing the Guard ceremony on Monday 16 April 2012. The crowd, including children from St Anne's School in Gibraltar, were there to see the Coldstream Guards hand over to the Royal Gibraltar Regiment (RG).

On the dot of 11.27, the RG Band led the Regiment's detachment out of Wellington Barracks, in through the huge gates of Buckingham Palace and on to the centre of the Palace forecourt. The RG’s scarlet tunics were a perfect match for those of the waiting Guardsmen but their white Kitchener helmets were in sharp contrast to the black bearskins of the Old Guard.

Once the outgoing Guard had marched off, the RG detachment divided into two, with one half marching off with the Regimental Band to take up sentry duties outside nearby St James's Palace and the other half remaining at Buckingham Palace.

For the next two weeks, these two royal palaces, along with the Tower of London, will be guarded by the RG, only the second time that the Regiment has performed these public duties in London.

MOD/Crown Copyright 2012

The Royal Gibraltar Regiment band marches in front of Buckingham Palace.

Guards from the Royal Gibraltar Regiment march in front of Buckingham Palace.

Guards from the Royal Gibraltar Regiment march in front of Buckingham Palace.

Guards from the Royal Gibraltar Regiment in front of Buckingham Palace.

Guards from the Royal Gibraltar Regiment take over duties from The Coldstream Guards.

Guards from the Royal Gibraltar Regiment in front of Buckingham Palace.

Guards from the Royal Gibraltar Regiment in front of Buckingham Palace.

[happyslapper]

Nice steely phot!
(one of your lot GreenDZflash?)

Paratrooper Waiting for Signal to Jump

A paratrooper waits for the signal to jump from a Hercules aircraft.
Soldiers from 16 Air Assault Brigade are training to maintain their role as the British Army's Rapid Reaction Force.
More than 1600 troops were taking part in Exercise Joint Warrior in southwest Scotland. The training is a key step in maintaining the skills necessary for the Airborne Task Force (ABTF) role, which sees the Colchester-based 16 Air Assault Brigade ready to deploy anywhere in the world at five days notice.
The exercise scenario saw the area of West Freugh airfield representing part of an area disputed by two fictional nations named Pastonia and Dragonia, which were divided by economic and ethnic factors.
The scenario represented complex challenges for the international community requiring NATO to send a rapid intervention force to the area to create the conditions for a United Nations peacekeeping force to take control.
The UK's ABTF used a combination of parachute, air assault, and tactical air landings to rapidly insert the troops into the disputed area.
Once inserted the ABTF, based around the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 5th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland (5 SCOTS) Battle Group, continued to defend the airfield.
The Battle Group also developed the airfield into a base from which several air assault operations could be launched to defeat the enemy force, create stable conditions for the population, and potentially evacuate UK civilians.
Photographer: Sgt Russ Nolan RLC

Troops Board C17 Globemaster Aircraft Enroute to Camp Bastion, Afghanistan

British troops are pictured boarding an RAF C-17 flight at 901 EAW (Expeditionary Air Wing) B Flt before the transit to Camp Bastion, Afghanistan.
The C-17 gives the RAF a longrange strategic heavy-lift transport aircraft that offers the ability to project and sustain an effective force close to a potential area of operations for combat, peacekeeping or humanitarian missions worldwide.
Photographer: Sergeant Ross Tilly RAF
Image 45153876.jpg from www.defenceimages.mod.uk

C17 Globemaster Transport Aircraft at RAF Brize Norton

Royal Air Force C17 Globemaster transport aircraft are pictured in the early morning mist at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
The C-17 Globemaster III is capable of rapid, strategic delivery of troops and all types of cargo to main operating bases anywhere in the world, or directly to more temporary forward operating bases owing to its short field capability. The design of the aircraft allows it to carry out high-angle, steep approaches at relatively slow speeds, thus allowing it to operate into small, austere airfields onto runways as short as 3,500 feet long and only 90 feet wide.
The aircraft can operate into and out of problematic sites such as those surrounded by inhospitable terrain or made difficult by adverse weather conditions. The fully-integrated, electronic flight-deck and the advanced cargo-handling systems allow a basic crew of only two pilots and one air loadmaster to operate the aircraft.
On the ground, the aircraft can be turned in a very small radius and its four Pratt & Whitney engines are fully reversible, giving it the ability to manoeuvre into and out of restricted parking or freight-offload areas at undeveloped strips. This enables the C-17 to deliver cargo to small airfields with limited parking space in a shorter time, so increasing throughput where time on the ground is kept to a minimum.
The C-17 can transport 45,360kgs of freight over 4,500 nautical miles whilst flying at heights in excess of 30,000 feet.Photographer: Flt Lt Chris Knight

[andreen]

I know of the Forward Air Controller, but what is a Forward Controller, a PF perhaps? with respect to the L119A1.
Similar to USAF Combat Controllers (CCT)?

[The Armchair Soldier]

For probably the last time in its 40-year history the Navy’s principal shield against air attack, Sea Dart missiles, have been fired by a Royal Navy warship. HMS Edinburgh launched seven of the Mach 2 missiles at target drones off the Outer Hebrides in a last hurrah ahead of a major military exercise off western Scotland.

http://www.navynews.co.uk/archive/news/item/4511

[hittite]

they still use M76 helmet?

[M_Ralph]

US General David Petraeus (right) walks with Lieutenant Colonel Ewen Murchison RM at Patrol Base Wahid in Nad 'Ali in Helmand, Afghanistan.

for once the Americans are copying us (we had MTP in general service before they had Multi-Cam)

Just a heads up, the U.S. had the Multi-Cam before the British had MTP. The U.S. had started to Issue the Multi-Cams in late 2009 early 2010. But the Multi-Cams have been around in the U.S. since about 2002-2003 when the
Army ACUs were being issued.

[Carbean]

Just a heads up, the U.S. had the Multi-Cam before the British had MTP. The U.S. had started to Issue the Multi-Cams in late 2009 early 2010. But the Multi-Cams have been around in the U.S. since about 2002-2003 when the
Army ACUs were being issued.

Thanks for that.

SF has been wearing it for yonks.

[Tucker217]

they still use M76 helmet?

M76? If I'm not mistaken thats either a MK7 or a British Para Lid.

Didn't the US Trial Multicam in '09? and issue it large scale late '10? UKSF wore it in Iraq in 2006 and probably before, still beat you lol

[hittite]

M76? If I'm not mistaken thats either a MK7 or a British Para Lid.

Didn't the US Trial Multicam in '09? and issue it large scale late '10? UKSF wore it in Iraq in 2006 and probably before, still beat you lol

untill 2011 Nov, m76 was still be used

[bersaglieri]

Some people apparently call the "HELMET, PARACHUTISTS, Light Weight" an M76 because it was issued in 1976 ...

[vor033]

Soldiers serving with 12th Mechanized Brigade in Afghanistan completing the final day of their mandatory RSOI (Reception, Staging, Onward movement & Integration) training after arrival in theatre in readiness for their move forward – March 2012

Photos: Cpl Andy Reddy, Army Photographer ©MOD/Crown Copyright 2012

[Tucker217]

untill 2011 Nov, m76 was still be used

Doesn't state M76 on the label, therefore it isn't, call it by its proper name "Helmet, Parachutists, Light Weight". Sick of so called 'collectors patterns'.

Also when has the British Army ever used 'M' Desginations? it would be a P76 (Pattern) if such thing existed.

[Carbean]

Doesn't state M76 on the label, therefore it isn't, call it by its proper name "Helmet, Parachutists, Light Weight". Sick of so called 'collectors patterns'.

Also when has the British Army ever used 'M' Desginations? it would be a P76 (Pattern) if such thing existed.

I thaught it was just called a Para Helmet haha

Someone i know has everything hanging off his Surefire light the lot covered in sniper tape and sprayed and his MK8 (think thats what its called) is identical.