MORE than 1,500 French and British troops concluded a two week exercise on Salisbury Plain last week with a demonstration of their joint capability in front of the British and French Defence Secretarys’ and their Chief’s of Defence Staff.

Exercise Griffin Strike 2016 has involved some 5,400 military personnel from the three services of both countries exercising across the South West with the Land Component Command led by Bulford based 3rd UK Division who deployed their HQ at St Mawgan.

Troops from the Parachute Regiment and the French 7th Armoured Brigade were exercised across the Plain culminating in a demonstration of their joint capability in a simulated attack on Imber village.

The assault involved British Typhoon and French Rafale fighter aircraft bombing the enemy position, followed by Army Air Corps Apache attack helicopters firing rockets, then British Challenger tanks and Warrior infantry fighting vehicles sealed off the position as the Paras were air landed from Chinook helicopters to take the bridge leading to Imber which allowed a French strike force of Leclerc main battle tanks and armoured infantry fighting vehicles cross the bridge and storm the village.

Exercise Griffin Strike 2016 is a UK-French operational and tactical level exercise which aims to demonstrate Full Validation of Concept (FVOC) of the Combined Joint Expeditionary Force (CJEF).

The CJEF is a component of the Lancaster House Treaties, signed in 2010 between the UK and France which are aimed at improving collective defence and is designed to operate for up to 90 days.

After Griffin Strike the CJEF will ultimately be available for rapid deployment for bilateral operations where UK and French national interests align and if called upon for NATO, UN or coalition operations.

Speaking after the demonstration Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said that after the Lancaster House Agreement in 2010, many people questioned if two proud nations would be able to operate so closely together, “the energy and industry that we have seen today proves the doubter wrong and, more importantly, indicates the combined potential of this force.”

He went on to say that British and French forces were cooperating in Chad and Nigeria combating Boko Haram, flying together over Syria and Iraq and naval forces were alongside one another in the Mediterranean and the Aegean He concluded that “The CJEF shows two proud nations working together to protect the values that we have in common. This is no paper tiger it is a force with the teeth and the means, the speed and the agility to act.”

Speaking to the Minster afterwards, he described Salisbury Plain as “The Beating Heart of the British Army, this is where the major exercises are done and when the withdrawal from Germany is eventually compete this is where a huge number of our troops are going to be based so the support of the local community here is absolutely invaluable.”

Major General Patrick Saunders, GOC 3 Div said the exercise had gone very well, “It is a much richer experience working with the French than working alone, you learn so much from each other, using capabilities to cover some of the gaps we have and vice versa, we are stronger by sharing and we have achieved a great deal.”