U.K. and French Armed Forces enter joint training program
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U.K. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, in his first meeting with the newly appointed French Minister for the Armed Forces Florence Parly, agreed to a new U.K.-French training program.
In September, over 1,500 British soldiers from the 16 Air Assault Brigade with join their French counterparts from the 11eme Brigade Parachitiste for a joint UK-French training program. Together, the troops will train on the NATO exercise Swift Response across Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.
Swift Response is a crisis training series to increase armed forces readiness for a quick and effective response to events in Europe.
“The UK and France have a long enduring relationship and that will continue as the UK leaves the European Union,” said Fallon.
Another 1,000 French troops will join an additional 1,000 U.K. personnel from the 3rd Battalion in November to conduct the exercise Askari Storm. Taking place in Kenya, they will train to prevent instability and the spread of violent extremism.
This follows a series of partnerships between the two nations that came up earlier this year.
Earlier this year, the U.K. and France signed a €100 million agreement to develop future long-range weapons and are working together on an unmanned combat air system.
As the UK prepares for HMS Queen Elizabeth to reach operational capability in 2020, France is expected to play its part in supporting the Carrier Strike Group, as the U.K. did with the French carrier Charles De Gualle in the Gulf in 2015 when HMS Kent was integrated into its task group.
