Engineering in Action
End to End REME Support to Enable Mission Ready Training From Aug 20 until Jan 21, BATUS Workshops, 4 Armd CS Bn REME and 1 MERCIAN LAD provided a continuous REME chain which took equipment from BATUS and prepared it for Mission Ready Training in Sennelager, Germany. This three-part series shows the successes of this joint effort and a highlights an effective and truly collaborative delivery of Equipment Support. Vehicles awaiting loading
Part One: BATUS The first link in the chain Scribe: Major Scott Thompson
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ue to COVID-19, the 2020 and 2021 training seasons in BATUS were cancelled, with the training instead being conducted in the UK and Germany. Sennelager Training Centre (STC) in Germany was chosen as the alternative location to facilitate mission ready training for Operational deployments. To ensure Units training in Germany had the right type and quantity of equipment, BATUS was asked to provide 150 platforms to bolster the Land Training Fleet Sennelager (LTF(S)). It was clear from the outset that the task of bringing all this equipment together from Germany, the UK and BATUS into one location before preparing it for an exercise starting in early January 2021 was going to be monumental. To ensure training success it was vital the vehicles being sent from BATUS would leave in the very best condition possible to alleviate the burden being placed on LTF(S) and 4 Armd Bn REME.
COVID 19 and Preparing the Fleet Scribe: Cfn Nicholls Like the UK, CO-VID-19 changed a lot for BATUS Workshop. It went from being a busy and demanding Workshop full of tradesmen to an
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empty Workshop under lockdown. However, as the restrictions changed, and we learned to adapt to working under the threat of COVID-19, in May 2020 we safely came back into work with new ways of working. It was decided in July that no training would take place for the rest of the year in BATUS and that training for 2021 would take place in the UK and Germany. At this point we were told that we would need to send a proportion of our armoured vehicles (150 platforms) to Germany so that the units deploying on Op CABRIT could train and prepare effectively in Jan 21. The task before us was massive! We had to prepare all of these vehicles to be ready to leave BATUS on Ex PRAIRIE TRANSPORTER in September. The majority of the platforms were armoured, but as a Workshop we had very limited personnel with any armoured experience. Those that did have the experience were given the task of overseeing the armoured lines while also teaching all the VMs how to repair WRs, BDs, CR2s and T3s. We knew that the vehicles would be going to LTF(S) and that 4 Bn were up against it with preparing not just these vehicles, but also ones from across the UK and the ones in LTF(S). It therefore made sense that we did everything we could at our end to help them out. As a Craftsman I had thankfully worked on WR before and so I found myself working long hours to inspect, repair and service the vehicles ready to deploy to LTF(S). Everyone in the Workshop was in coveralls, even the ASM was on the shopfloor in his coveralls as the only person with T3 experience. The whole Workshop worked long hours
