A paratrooper from Sutton Coldfield, in the West Midlands, has jumped into France to train alongside French airborne forces.
Private Casey Perkins is among 2,000 soldiers from 16 Air Assault Brigade and 11e Brigade Parachutiste on Exercise Orion on the St Cyr-Coëtquidan training area in Brittany. The troops are being tested on a mission to support a NATO ally tackling an insurgency and the threat of invasion.
Casey, of 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, took off from RAF Brize Norton to parachute into the exercise. He is part of Mortar Platoon, equipped with the L16A2 81mm mortar to fire high explosive, smoke or illuminating rounds.
The 20-year-old said: “I carry the mortar bipod, so my kit was very heavy and I had to be pushed out of the aircraft door.
“I hit the ground quite hard, and then the actual work starts! We set up the mortars quickly to provide protection in case we’re attacked while the battalion is forming up on the drop zone. I’m the number three on the crew, responsible for the ammunition.
“It’s my job to prepare the bombs to be fired and keep track of how many bombs we have on the position. We’re in France to practise our skills for defensive operations and develop how we can work with French airborne forces.”
Casey has been on exercise in USA and Cyprus during his two years in the Army. The former Fairfax Academy pupil said: “I wanted to do something that would be a challenge, get me overseas, and give me a bit of an adventure.
“The Army has given me all of that.” Exercise Orion is testing the Airborne Combined Joint Force, a partnership between British and French airborne forces that has been ready to respond to global crises since 2013.
It at the forefront of Franco-British military co-operation started by the 2010 Lancaster House Treaties, which were updated in 2025. The British Army is recruiting right now to fill 10,000 jobs across the UK with more than 200 roles to choose from, covering everything from frontline combat and cyber security to helicopter pilots, chefs and support roles.
If you’re aged 16 to 50 and if you want to find out more about a career in the Army, search online for 'Army Jobs'. 16 Air Assault Brigade is the British Army's global response force, specially trained and equipped to deploy by parachute, helicopter and airlanding.
Its core role is to maintain and command the Air Manoeuvre Task Force (AMTF), comprising infantry and aviation battlegroups held at very high readiness to deploy anywhere in the world to carry out the full spectrum of missions, from non-combatant evacuation operations to war fighting. It is at the forefront of developing interoperability with the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and the French Army’s 11e Brigade Parachutiste.
