Sponsored Reserves

The Sponsored Reserves are a category of reserve forces in the British Armed Forces, created by the Reserve Forces Act 1996. It allows for certain support or specialist tasks to be carried out by trained civilian professionals. The Royal Fleet Auxiliary, for example, have a Sponsored Reserve scheme for those entering combat zones.

The first sponsored reserve unit was the Mobile Meteorological Unit, providing mainly aviation weather services to the RAF and the Army Air Corps. Other Sponsored Reserve Units have been developed in line with the 1998 Strategic Defence Review.

The Joint Cyber Reserve is a recent development in Sponsored Reserves, whereby civilian experts are being recruited for Cyberwarfare defence of the United Kingdom.

...
Wikipedia