English: Pictured is a Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) officer putting the final touches to a Mobile Testing Unit (MTU).

The British Army was instrumental in the build and design of the fleet of rapidly deployable mobile processing laboratory that were used across the UK to help increase its daily coronavirus testing capacity.

A team of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, spread across four projects designed, built or supported a range of mobile laboratories which provide the next level of processing capabilities to support the Governments Mass Testing Programme.

A team of tradesmen from 5 Force Support Battalion REME were working with an industry partner to build a large processing capability which could be easily integrated with existing local and regional Mobile Testing Units (MTUs).

The large laboratories, capable of facilitating a workforce of up to eight laboratory technicians, were capable out LamPORE testing to support outbreak response. Laboratory technicians were then able to process swab or saliva samples to detect the presence of COVID-19 in around 90 minutes.

The Corps of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) provides engineering support and is responsible for maintaining and repairing the Army’s equipment. They will be found wherever the army is located at home or overseas. The diversity in the Army’s equipment will challenge the best engineers but our soldiers receive the best technical training giving them the confidence to tackle any engineering problem.