Sapper GEMS

"GEMS is the MOD-wide staff suggestion scheme that recognises and rewards ideas which are put into practice" says the MoD web site.

Have a Cobra radar system overheating in the Iraqi sun? Give the sappers a pack of smokes to draw on and off they go. "...the engineers scavenged for scrap wood, discarded plastic tubing and even humble cling film to knock up a unit that drew a breeze from an air conditioning unit and fed it into the Cobra via a set of insulated tubes.

A prototype of the rudimentary design cost just £20 to build, but the innovation proved so effective that a full model was built and the idea awarded a Gems cash prize." You can read more in Soldier Magazine.

Sources(s): As cited