Introduction

The foreign Military Reserve Exchange Programme (MREP) is run with the USA, Australia and Canada and allows soldiers to serve as reservists with each other’s militaries.

Background

The MREP is an annual exercise allowing personnel from Reserve Forces of all three (3) Services to travel to one of the above countries to learn the working practices and culture of an allied nation, in order to improve inter-operability between the countries.

The exchange is hosted by a representative from the host nation’s Reserve Forces who then later travels to the UK to be hosted by the same UK Reserve who visited the exchange nation.

You can find out more, from the American perspective, here, and the UK perspective, here (on Defence Gateway).

References

Reserve Forces and Cadets Association (RFCA). n.d. Military Reserves Exchange Programme. Available from World Wide Web: https://www.rfca-ne.org.uk/military-reserves-exchange-programme/#:~:text=The%20Military%20Reserves%20Exchange%20Programme%20(MREP)%20is%20an%20annual%20exercise,inter%2Doperability%20between%20the%20countries. [Accessed: 19 February, 2021].

Soldier. (2021) Global Sitrep. Soldier: Magazine of the British Army. February 2020, pp.8.