[1] In modern terms, an armourer is a member of a military or police force who works in an armoury and maintains and repairs small arms and weapons systems, with some duties resembling those of a civilian gunsmith.
In some ways, this is a reversion back to the original meaning of the term insofar as these companies forge, adapt or integrate physical armour onto platforms in order to protect human life.
The title is also used in the sport fencing (the foil, the épée and the sabre) to refer to those who repair fencers' weaponry, safety equipment, fencing-strips, scoring machines, and reels.
At sport-fencing events, the individuals responsible for checking equipment safety and maintaining the strips, reels and scoring machines during the tournament are also known as armourers.
[citation needed] With the renewed interest in traditional armour and weaponry the occupation also involves working with film, stage, and historical and reenactment societies.
Today they form a core role within the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) and work on an extremely wide variety of weapon systems.
Typically, armourers are attached to every type of front line operational unit within the British Army such as Infantry, Cavalry, Engineers, Logistics, Special Forces and specialist training teams.
Artisan Armourers who remain working at trade can also achieve Warrant Officer Class 1 (WO1) typically as a Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) of a REME Battalion and potentially gain a Late Entry (LE) commission.
They are on occasion expected to participate fully in ceremonial and operational duties and their rank structure is determined by the branch of the military they serve in for example Army- Private, Corporal, and so on.
[2] In a response to the disastrous unloading of the Idomeneus ship in January 1943 — where a wharf labourer died and many others were badly gassed by mustard gas leaking from a drum — the Royal Australian Air Force created a specialist unit, the Chemical Warfare Armourers.