News from the Top

Assistant Chief of General Staff - Logistics
COL Peter Cunninghame

27 February 2007

World Class Soldiers Respect Their Equipment

The management and maintenance of equipment is a key skill; from your personal equipment, to the vehicles and equipment the Army deploys. All commanders and leaders have a responsibility to ensure that equipment is functional, compliant and well maintained; they must implement a regime of checks as equipment is issued, and when it is returned. Equipment must be respected, and it must be ready for us to deploy with, so that we can deploy with the best available kit.

The modern Army now has a much more complex and diverse fleet of equipment and vehicles, and we must ensure we are trained to operate, service and maintain them.

How often have you complained about the state of equipment you have been issued, or found that the equipment you need to train with is not available? How often have you handed something back to your Q store that you have broken in training, or have been given a piece of equipment from your Q store, that when you went to use it, it didn't work? How often have you been handed a piece of equipment that you have not been trained to use?

If your equipment is broken or unserviceable, you cannot do your job. If you break equipment, for any reason, you are not only letting yourself, your mates and your unit down, you are also jacking on your mates. It is your mates who will be the next in line to use the equipment, or who may need to deploy with it – and then find it is not available. It’s up to you – take responsibility to make it right.

Having enough equipment to do your job is about looking after the equipment you have; not just the equipment on personal issue to you, but all of the equipment you use. Each and every one of us is responsible for looking after equipment: check it when it is issued to you or handed to you to use, look after it properly while you have it, and clean and check it before handing it back.

If you have not been trained to use the equipment, don’t attempt to use it until you have been shown how to use it – don’t be afraid to ask how to use it. Do not assume it must be easy to use because it looks simple, or you have seen someone else using it. Every piece of equipment is important.

Getting more equipment for you is my job, and my team and I are working hard at that for you. Looking after it once you get it is your job, and I expect you to work hard at that.

Equipment care – it’s everyone’s responsibility