Hi there,

Thank you for your question.

No, you do not have to become a Paratrooper to be an Air Defence Gunner.

The Royal Artillery currently has two Air Defence regiments, both based near Portsmouth. One is responsible for medium-range Air Defence (16th Regiment Royal Artillery) and is equipped with the state of the art Sky Sabre; and the other (12th Regiment Royal Artillery) is a Close Support Air Defence and Counter Uncrewed Aerial Systems regiment equipped with Starstreak missile.

Within 12th Regiment, one Battery is an Air Assault Battery - 12 (Minden) Air Assault Battery Royal Artillery. They are equipped with the Lightweight Multiple Launcher Starstreak & Lightweight Multirole Missile and are Para trained and able to jump into operations with their equipment.

This variety of roles and skills means that if you fancy pushing yourself and giving P Company a go then there is the opportunity to do so, but if you decide it’s not for you then that is not a problem as there are still lots of non-Para air defence roles.

It is worth following both the Regiments on social media as you’ll get a real feel for who they are and what they do.

I hope this answers your question but if not please come back to me on this tread and I’ll provide more information.

Katie

28 December, 2023 08:51

Right, thank you! I digged into the role paratrooper and I find it interesting. Definitely seems like a challenging career path but it seems very rewarding. I was wondering if you could provide me some insight to how the basic training looks like and how a life of a paratrooper looks like?

01 January, 2024 06:23

Hi again,

The Parachute Regiment is a great regiment and will almost certainly provide challenge and excitement, as will most Regiments within the British Army.

I would recommend visiting the British Army Recruitment website and looking through the role finder if you’re not sure which role is right for you - it will show you all the options so you can decided which is the best fit: https://jobs.army.mod.uk/regular-army/

Initial training is the same for all infantry soldiers, so if you are over 17 years and 5 months old then you will complete a 30 week course at the Infantry Training Centre (ITC) in Catterick. This combines your Basic training and Infantry Initial Trade Training, plus the famous P Company training and tests. If you are under 17 years and 5 months old then you will start your training at the Army Foundation College (AFC) in Harrogate - this is a 49 week course followed by 14 weeks at ITC Catterick.

At ITC Catterick you improve your fitness, learn skills in weapon handling and firing weapons, learn how to operate in the field, learn how to read an map and use a compass, learn to march, learn how to perform first aid, and learn all about the British Army and the values and standards that we live by. If you successfully pass this then

After all this you’d then complete a three-week parachuting course and join your battalion as a fully Para trained soldier.

As a parachute regiment solider out of training your day to day work will vary but is all based on training to make sure you are ready to do your job when required. It will include fitness sessions, classroom lessons, kit prep and maintenance, jumps training, range time and field exercises. Typically you will work weekdays from 8:30am until 5pm - but there will of course be periods when you work later, or at weekends. You will have 38 days paid leave - much more than most civilian jobs. When overseas deployments come around they are is usually for 6 months and you'll get extra leave when you get back, as well as being paid extra when you're away. Take a look at the link below for the Paratrooper role - this has more about the fitness standards and qualifications you can get: https://apply.army.mod.uk/roles/infantry/paratrooper

I hope this helps you with your decision making.

Katie

01 January, 2024 09:15