The REME Strategy

THE REME STRATEGY – FUTURE SOLDIER, FUTURE REME

From Lt Gen Paul Jaques CB CBE, Master General REME

Today, on St Eligius Day in our 80th year, the REME is launching a new Strategy – Future Soldier, Future REME. Its aim is to ensure the REME is ready and able to keep the punch in the British Army’s fist on the battlefield of tomorrow.

The world is seeing environmental, health, economic and political pressures increasing. Events in Ukraine has brought home just how quickly these pressures can spill over into a major conflict with ramifications across the world. Technology is also changing at pace; driving changes in how armies fight and increasing the complexity of what they fight with. REME needs to adapt to ensure that we have the engineering and military skills needed to operate successfully on the future battlefield. Central to the strategy is ensuring that REME soldiers have the right skills to support future equipment, the right tools and materiel to fix it and better information to manage equipment and know when to ‘fix before failure’.

The REME cannot deliver the strategy alone. We are reliant on others who acquire equipment, fund training, manage information systems and design training to enable its delivery. However, if officers and soldiers at all levels carry a clear understanding of where REME needs to go and work coherently to support the delivery of the strategy then we will continue to be successful. REME’s strength is that we are spread across the Army and develop an amazing diversity of experiences and ability; but we also struggle to speak with one-voice. The REME Strategy articulates a clear sense of where we want to go but it requires us all to work more effectively together to get there.

The centre page pull out in this month’s Craftsman describes the REME Strategy in a single picture. Please put it on notice boards, discuss it and come to understand it as a team. You will recognise that the work underpinning this strategy fall into four Lines of Operation: • Being ready for the future in skills, equipment structures, resources and training.

Brig Phil Prosser CBE, ACOS Eqpt, HQ Field Army

“The Corps faces a number of challenges as our Master General has highlighted. The strategy will help us navigate our future. It will need to evolve as the context evolves; we must remain agile, we must continue to shift our approach as we benchmark against the most likely fight, and we must continue to learn how to work with an increasing number of partners. The aim is to safeguard our future, to ensure that every one of us will know our place on the future battlefield, and what’s more, we can keep the punch in the Army’s fist by being equipped with the right equipment, tools and mindset. This is not for our own benefit, this is for the safety of this great nation; no one can do what we do.” • Exploiting data to maximise the fighting power we deliver. • Keeping people at the heart of what we do; continuing to offer our people a wholesome, rewarding and fulfilling career • Being professional in all we do.

Each of these Lines of Operation is led by a REME Brigadier reporting to the Corps Council.

To view the REME Strategy – Future Soldier, Future REME - in full, including our Lines of Operation and all of the Future Plans that follow from it, please visit the RHQ SharePoint Homepage, under ‘announcements’ or REME RHQ on the Defence Connect ‘announcements’.

WO1 (CASM) Mark Lynch

“The Strategy gives us direction and a clear pathway to continually deliver battle winning equipment to the user in the future. The lines of operations are seamless and coherent; enabling the Corps to effectively repair forward the next generation of platforms through engineering innovation. I would encourage all to use the picture on the next page as a handrail and absorb the relevance behind the text. Each work-strand will ensure we are prepared, skilled and equipped for future operations.”