
The Army’s Rapid Equipping Force has escaped the fate of the many precursors shuttered after major wars and has been declared an “enduring capability” with funding, albeit modest, through fiscal 2023.The Army has established some sort of fast-innovation office during every conflict since World War II when engineers quickly devised hedgerow cutting devices for the “Rhino” tanks plowing across France in 1944. REF was established in 2002 to swiftly field robots that could scout subterranean tunnels in Afghanistan.Today, it receives…