Friday March 6th 2026
Penicuik paratrooper Private Stuart Hay. Crown Copyright 2026
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
A paratrooper from Penicuik is in France to train alongside French airborne forces.
Private Stuart Hay is among 2,000 soldiers from 16 Air Assault Brigade and 11e Brigade Parachutiste on Exercise Orion on the St Cyr-Coëtquidan training area in Brittany. The troops are being tested on a mission to support a NATO ally tackling an insurgency and the threat of invasion.
Stuart, of 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, is an Uncrewed Aerial System operator, trained to fly drones to find and strike the enemy.
The 28-year-old said: “We’re here to practice our own skills and drills and build our partnership with French airborne forces, to be ready for the challenges of the future.
“Flying drones is a long way from where I started as a rifleman, and I would have never seen myself as a pilot and doing coding to configure drones. The future is drones and we are at the front of it.”
James, a former Penicuik High School pupil, has been on exercise in USA, Japan, Oman, France, and Cyprus during his six years in the Army.
The Colchester-based paratrooper said: “I joined up out of boredom. After school, I worked as a labourer and then a roofer, and I was just spending days carrying heavy stuff around. I wanted to do something different and be challenged – the Army has given me that, and I’ve travelled a lot.”
Exercise Orion is testing the Airborne Combined Joint Force, a partnership between British and French airborne forces that has been ready to respond to global crises since 2013. It at the forefront of Franco-British military co-operation started by the 2010 Lancaster House Treaties, which were updated in 2025.
The British Army is recruiting right now to fill 10,000 jobs across the UK with more than 200 roles to choose from, covering everything from frontline combat and cyber security to helicopter pilots, chefs and support roles.
If you’re aged 16 to 50 and if you want to find out more about a career in the Army, search online for ‘Army Jobs’.
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