The Elite Airborne British Army Regiment, The Paras, Will Not Have Parachutes

They have a reputation for daring and courage – seeing courageous action in Normandy, Arnhem, the Falklands and Afghanistan.

But the future of the legendary ‘Paras’ could be under threat from cost-cutting measures, which astonishingly include being forced to ditch their parachutes, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Instead of jumping out of RAF transport planes, the elite Parachute Regiment would deploy to frontline action in helicopters.

The plans – seemingly dreamt up by RAF chiefs to save money – were last night branded ‘strategic and operational madness’.

Tobias Ellwood, a former Tory Defence Minister, said: ‘No aircraft means no training, no mass jumps, no airborne infantry – the slow death of the most elite line regiment in the British Army.

‘With increasing global uncertainty, this is not the way to prepare for possible war.’

He also suggested that RAF chiefs’ real motive for asking for the cuts was because the huge A400M transport planes – which have replaced the smaller C-130 Hercules aircraft – were not suited to parachute drops.

However, that was refuted by one ex-paratrooper, who insisted the new aircraft were ‘cleared for parachuting last year’.

It is believed that the very contentious reduction was suggested as a component of the government’s long-delayed Defence Investment Plan (DIP).

That plan, originally scheduled for publication last autumn, has still not been published amid warnings that the Ministry of Defence is short of billions of pounds over the next four years.

A source said the RAF had asked for the Paras to no longer jump from its A400M planes on the grounds that there are simply not enough of the aircraft.

Last night, one former senior Parachute Regiment officer said: ‘While technically, you can parachute from a ‘copter, in practice you wouldn’t want to.

‘Combat troop-carrying helicopters often fly low to evade radar and, critically, they do not have the capacity or the flying endurance that the A400M offers to lift large numbers of paratroopers.

‘In effect, this cut-back would ground the Parachute Regiment and rule out any future mass parachute drop by British forces.’

Axing parachuting would allegedly save the RAF more than £15 million a year as it would no longer have to supply the ‘chutes’ and specialist training of pilots and aircrew, as well as the training of paratroopers.

The A400Ms are said to be in constant demand flying to the Falklands, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Poland, Estonia, USA, Australia, Kenya, Oman, Jordan and Norway.

It is not the first time the Paras – whose catchphrase is Utrinque Paratus (Ready for Anything) – have been caught in a row about a lack of planes. 

I was just wondering if our government were to remove all the illegal immigrants and fake asylum seekers who have plagued our shores back to whatever continent they came from. Wouldn’t the UK then have enough money to spend on its Armed Forces? Wouldn’t there also be enough money for our NHS, law and order, housing and local government? And when I said send them all back, I also meant those people who have been given citizenship/passports under a leftist socialist agenda. Where does it say that Britain must take all of the world’s unwanted and uninvited?

To be honest, only our very inept government workers could have thought of a parachute regiment without parachutes. This is just proof once again of the folly of this Labour government, which, despite what they say, continues to cut front-line defence spending.

This is frankly an invasion, and those who are attempting to protect us are hung out to dry by our disgraceful government.