Introduction

This special edition of Civil Engineering describes the skills that Britain's Corps of Royal Engineers can bring to bear in restoring national infrastructure following a conflict. During the past 25 years the ‘Sappers’ have built or rebuilt airports, railways, power stations, transmission networks, and water and fuel supply systems in the Falklands, the Balkans, Afghanistan and, most recently, Iraq.

The UK's military engineers are genuinely multi-skilled in that they are trained not only as soldiers and combat engineers but also as technicians, artisans and other supporting trades. The flexibility of a work-force that can turn its hand from combat engineering...