ABSTRACT
During 1988 a simple system for collecting coarse reliability data on Main Battle Tanks was devised by the REME reliability staff branch in the Ministry of Defence. The system was trialled in the summer of 1989 in 2 squadrons equipped with Chieftain tanks at Tidworth. The results of the trial were encouraging and it was concluded that Battlewinning Equipment Reliability Return (BERR) was likely to produce coarse but acceptable reliability data. Many modifications to the methodology were indicated by the trial experience but perhaps the most important conclusion was that the BERR data also contained availability information. At the start of the BERR initiative data processing was a manual process and, indeed, that was the method employed to assess the data collected at Tidworth. The existing BERR screens have been designed for a Main Battle Tank. It is thought a simple exercise to re-configure the screens to monitor an armoured personnel carrier, load carrying vehicles, guns or weapon system.
