The Routing Engine (RE) in Juniper Networks devices plays a critical role in the control plane operations. One of its functions includes responding to network utility commands like ping and traceroute, which are essential for diagnosing network connectivity and path issues. Furthermore, the RE is responsible for maintaining the routing tables, which contain information about network paths and destinations. These tables are vital for making forwarding decisions but are distinct from the actual forwarding of packets, which is handled by the Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE).