EX TUSKER RAPTOR

During that time many professional and personal bonds were created and for 27 Sqn RAF Odiham that bond was with the French parachute unit the GCP (Groupement des Commandos Parachutistes). Nearly a year after leaving Mali, 27 Sqn kept those relationships alive and found themselves working with the French paras again. Ex TUSKER RAPTOR, named after the two unit’s emblems (an elephant for 27 Sqn and a bird of prey for the 1 RCP), was a unit level, selfgenerated exercise consisting of 2 CH-47s in support of the 1st Parachute Chasseur Regiment (1RCP) in Southeast France.

The exercise in May started with the deployment of personnel and equipment by CH-47 from RAF Odiham to Pamiers, France. This was achieved on a Friday, with the 2 aircraft landing on the 1 RCP football pitch to be welcomed by the French in the afternoon. The weekend was then spent integrating and planning for the week to come. Saturday and Sunday saw the engineers prepare the aircraft, whilst the aircrew and ops team prepared for four full days of trooping in an unfamiliar and mountainous area.

The flying consisted of trooping and mountain flying with the RCP camp acting as the base of operations throughout the exercise. Although weather and aircraft serviceability had an impact 27 Sqn were able to achieve all that was requested by 1 RCP, moving around 1500 PAX over the duration of the exercise. The tasking saw the insert and exfil of numerous platoons to multiple different landing sites, including the GCP. The serials consisted of MEDEVAC, reaction to contact drills, reactive tasking and live trooping all overlaid on poor weather and unfamiliar airspace. Mountain flying in the Pyrenees, formation flying, and overseas flying training sorties were conducted by all, meaning a huge amount was achieved during a short period, with little resource.

27 Sqn were hosted superbly by the 1 RCP throughout the exercise and the great integration and cooperation between the two units lead to tangible efficiency which was noticeable by the end of the week, with the RCP organising and running the tasking lines with little input from the UK aircrew. As has been seen in Mali the professionalism of the French Military parallels UK Armed Forces’ standards and every expectation was met during the exercise in Pamiers. The opinion of the 1 RCP and GCP from the Sqn personnel on the detachment could not be higher and all those from 27 Sqn who took part are looking forward to working with them again in the future, whether in the UK or in France.