The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has confirmed that contracts with Sheffield Forgemasters for artillery gun barrel forgings have been finalised, signalling the beginning of a larger effort to enhance Ukraine’s capabilities.
While Ukraine has secured access to £3.5 billion in UK export finance, allowing for the purchase of British military aid, this does not represent a commitment to spend the full amount immediately, but rather provides the flexibility to meet Ukraine’s military needs over time.
According to the MOD’s announcement, these contracts are part of ongoing measures to ensure the readiness of UK industry to meet future orders, supporting Ukraine’s military needs in its ongoing conflict.
A recent UK trade mission, involving representatives from the MOD, Department for Business and Trade, and the defence trade association ADS, visited Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian Government and industry officials. The mission is part of the deepening ties between the UK and Ukraine’s defence industries, following a major agreement signed in July that secured £3.5 billion in UK export finance to enable Ukraine to purchase advanced capabilities.
The mission was led by the UK’s Minister for the Armed Forces, Luke Pollard MP, who participated in discussions at the Ukraine Defence Industrial Forum. The forum provided a platform for the UK to reaffirm its commitment to supplying Ukraine with much-needed military aid. Pollard highlighted the UK’s “steadfast support for Ukraine” and the ongoing efforts to expand industrial cooperation. He stressed that “our support is much broader than simply providing equipment,” underscoring the collaborative efforts of both nations to ensure Ukraine’s long-term defence needs are met.
The MOD announced that agreements were made during the trade mission regarding Ukraine’s requirements for complex weapons and land systems support, providing a clear signal to UK industry about the types of equipment the Ukrainian forces will need in the future. The MOD is now preparing to contract with UK defence companies to fulfil these requests.
Minister for the Armed Forces, Luke Pollard MP said:
“The UK’s support for Ukraine is ironclad. We continue to lead the way in providing military aid, but our support is much broader than simply providing equipment. Our flourishing defence industrial relationship symbolises the work happening across Government and the private sector to ramp up and speed up our support.
By deepening our ties with Ukraine’s defence industry, we are expanding own industrial capacity, while boosting Ukraine’s own capabilities. We stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, and we will provide support for as long as it takes.”
Additionally, Task Force HIRST, a UK cross-government team that includes MOD, UK Export Finance, and the Department for Business and Trade, has been working to stimulate industrial production and foster international collaboration with Ukrainian companies. The goal is to ensure that UK defence manufacturers are fully prepared to meet Ukraine’s evolving military requirements, with future orders funded through Ukraine’s reserves and the export finance provided by the UK.
This commitment follows the UK Government’s recent success in surpassing its pledge to deliver 12 AS90 artillery guns within 100 days. To date, 10 have been provided, with an additional six to follow soon, demonstrating the UK’s ability to accelerate its support for Ukraine’s war effort.
The contracts with Sheffield Forgemasters and other UK defence firms are crucial to the UK’s overall effort to boost Ukraine’s defence capabilities and strengthen the UK’s industrial capacity. As Pollard stated, “We stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, and we will provide support for as long as it takes.”
Any updates on the patrol boats they wanted? Recall 1 was to be built by Babcock with the others constructed under licence.
I think the unfortunate truth is Ukraine isn’t really in the naval market at the moment, so probably kicked into the long grass.
Well in reality, Ukraine has not purchased the weapons. British taxpayers have. Seems a pity that in the meantime, the British Government prepares for more defence cuts.
The headline is misleading. It suggests that UKR is to spend £3.5Bn of its own money on British armaments. Your interpretation is that they can order this amount of kit with HMG picking up the tab. The absolute sting in the tail is if the hit is taken by the MoD budget when it shouldn’t be.
The one positive is that this kind of thing boosts volume weapons manufacturing.
I agree if the MoD budget is being pillaged for this rather than Treasury Reserve that is a very big problem.
I would imagine this would not be MOD budget as it’s essentially a state on state finance package..which would be foreign office.
Referrung to previous funding for Ukrsine militsry support….The Treasury Contingency Reserve should be used or Foreign Office budget. But I am sure I have seen numerous articles that state it comes out of the MoD budget.
Not sure if this latest announcement reflects a change to the above.
It almost doesn’t matter where the money comes from if it’s counted towards the headline number. If this magically takes the UK over the 2.5% headline, there will be no more Defence money coming in the future, and it might even allow for cuts.
Exactly. That’s why it very much matters where the UKR money is coming from.
It’s state on state financing, with fixed requirement to spend it on the financing state’s product..essentially its a loan.
Will this come from an extra stream or be taken from the defence budget.
For me take it out of the aid budget.
There’s none of that left on account of putting an army of illegal immigrants up in Holiday Inns
Do we have to have this stuff here as well?
Didnt realise they have been downgraded to Holiday Inn level, are all the Ritz’s full now?
its a loan, via uk govt export finance. its nothing to do with the MoD budget
is that the 750K illegal immigrants that it is reckoned makeup the largest illegal immigrant population in Europe ,above Germany 700k, Italy 450k and (what a surprise )France 300k. Or Perpaps the illegal immigrants that come over on the boats but then immediately claim asylum which therefore were not included in the 750k.
750K is equivalent to a city the size of Leeds and includes people outside of law and order, open to expoiltation and , of course ,a loss of tax from the illegal working (how else are they to get money)
Apparently our governments (none of them) don’t even try to count how many – even though other countries follow some sort of methodology to guage the problem and therefore its impact.
We just don’t bother , and its a probelm that needs sorting, whatever side of the political spectrum you sit on.
Wait until you see the legal migration number. Over 1million each year. The headlines bang on about the 30k that come in boats while masses come in other ways.
I’m not against immigration but it has to be roughly balanced to how many are leaving and how many people U.K. services can cope with.
No point bringing in 3m every 3 years but not building homes, Services, infrastructure to cope with it.
The economy has been flatlining for a decade and I do wonder if it’s linked partly to the ever increasing immigration
Yeah look at the state of NHS and school classroom sizes. Thats without going into the Police being ran ragged.
Can all these migrants, whether legal or illegal, afford the rents or mortgage payments of those newly built houses (if Rayner manages to build them)?
Hmmm…article references HMG’s success in addressing and even exceeding pledge to provide UKR 12 AS-90 SPGs w/in 100 days. Although an admirable gesture, perhaps one that is somewhat premature, before finalization of a plan and schedule for acquisition of a replacement capability (in addition to the purchase of interim Archers)? Not certain NATO or UK has achieved a net positive result by stripping British Army of a capability for an indeterminate period. 🤔😳
I do subscribe to the view that every tank we subcontract Zelenski and Co to destroy is one that British Troops never have to face.
However, I would have liked to have seen firm orders placed prior.
I think there are quite a few AS90’s about that are not allocated so provided it is ones that have been fixed up it may not impact front line?
Graham Moore is better placed on this.
AS-90. It is always hard to work out how much kit has been donated and how much remains. We bought 179 AS-90s which came into service in 1992. No idea what happened to the ‘fleet’ up to 2010 but in that year the Cameron SDR directed that 35% would be withdrawn from service as a defence cut following the global financial crisis. If nothing had happened to the fleet prior to 2010, then there would have been c116 guns on the active list and c63 on the non-active list.
Looking at the annual MoD equipment spreadsheet, by 2016 the active fleet had been diminished from c116 to 89 guns, so perhaps the inactive fleet correspondingly rose from 63 to 90. Some of those on the inactive list may have been scrapped, but I don’t know.
Between 1 Apr 22 and 1 Apr 23 the active fleet diminished from 89 to 57, the delta of 32 being accounted for the gifting of 32 AS-90s to Ukraine (20 in good condition and 12 sub-par that the UKR could cannibalise).
The Labour government promised to gift 12 more AS-90 within 100 days of taking office but have now upped that to 16, some 10 of which have already been despatched sometime before 26 Sep with the remaining 6 to be delivered in the next few weeks.
If, so then UK will currently have 47 AS-90 on the active list reducing to 41 in the next few weeks.
However 2 hrs ago msn.com stated that over 60 x AS-90 had already been supplied to UKR (rather than my figure of 42 (32+10). So who knows? If precisely 60 have been supplied to UKR to today, then UK will have 29 left on the active list, rather than 47.
Working with the 29 UK (BA) figure, that could be 14 in Estonia and 15 split between the Trg Org, Repair Pool and Attrition Reserve. There should also be a very considerable number of equipments (hard to state how many as there may have been equipments fully scrapped) on the inactive list, which will almost certainly be in rag order.
I take your point about replacement, although I doubt we’ll get many more archer unfortunately.
That aside, I think celebrating the success of delivering 12 in 100 days when we’ve only delivered 10 is premature in its own right…
We have of course up to now sent many other AS-90s to Ukraine. Someone here thought it was a figure in the low 40s but it could be more. We first supplied AS-90s a good while ago. Maybe 18 months ago.
As you say, receiving 14 Archers as the BAs interim solution is an inadequate number.
BA is down now to a tiny number of 155mm SPGs.
Clearly in the Cold War we had many hundreds of SPGs of various types.
We once had 179 SPGs (AS-90) for the post-Cold War Royal Artillery (in addition to Light Gun and MLRS of course) at the beginning of the 1990s. For 155mm, we now have 14 secondhand Archers and maybe 30 or 40 (at best) usable AS-90s.
Plan?! That is not a word our political masters understand. They just want to throw more and more kit to Ukraine and it is something of an afterthought to top up the BA with replacement equipment and munitions, and it is never enough and it is always a long time after we have donated kit to UKR ie capability gap for BA.
On the one hand, we are sending fairly good equipment and it is being used for the role it was intended, and we are not risking British lives to fight our erstwhile foe. But politicos such as Grant Shapps when SofS and Generals such as Patrick Sanders when CGS and many more have said that we are in a prewar situation and/or that war could be upon us in 3 or 5 years.
If General War happens in that timeline, then the BA will be in a terrible place. Few of the new kit (CR3, Ajax, Boxer) will be in service. 155mm artillery will be scant as RCH-155 probably won’t be in service. Much of the current kit (CR2, Warrior, those few remaining AS-90s, and the venerable FV430s) will have to deploy and is old and unmodernised. Many think we have ammunition stocks to fight for little more than 2 weeks.
It really is shocking. The British Army that I served in (1975-2009) has been hollowed out to an alarming level. Not long ago, I think when Future Soldier was published (2021?) it was said that the army especially our one remaining warfighting division, would be modernised by 2025.
Now it is said to be late 2030. However, not all of the Boxers will be in service by 2030. We will still lack an IFV. RCH-155 may not be fully fielded.
I think it was a Reporting From Ukraine video which said last week the the British AS90s were doing really wel,l and showed an example of hitting Russian troops whilst on they were moving.
Yes I saw that, I got the impression it was a one shot hit, the Ukrainians seem to find it a very accurate weapon.
I think there are less As90 than even that, going by D Lee’s comments.
See my reply to SB, sent a few minutes ago. BA might have either 47 on the active list or 29 (if you believe todays report on msn.com, which has not been substantiated from a second source)!
Thanks GM, was reasonably certain re your sentiments in this matter, though, of course, not as well versed in the specific details. Dunno, the perspective of the majority of the political class is both disturbing and perplexing. While it is a very admirable decision to assist neutral state(s) suffering from unprovoked aggression, perhaps not the wisest course to compromise an essential capability of the BA in the process. Deem it to be perfectly acceptable to donate munitions that are approaching expiration, but not necessarily equipment essential for self-defense w/out a plan for timely replacement. That must be a parochial, old-school perspective, not suitable for modern sensibilities. 🤔😳😱
So now that Ukraine has stimulated us into rebuilding our industrial capability to forge gun barrels we can confidently expect to see the new tracked SPG to be ……..Braveheart 😂
Great news for Sheffield Forgemaster.
The UK government now just to give the go ahead with Rolls Royce for the SMR’s to help with the energy generation.
I’m not holding my breath 😓 And no I’m not going into details as to why as I have my BP to think of.
That way Sheffield Forgemasters would be competitive even in Millibrain’s world.
Not if Milliband has anything to say on the matter it won’t.
I actually don’t give a Monkeys how we fund this, as long as it doesn’t come out of the U.K. defence budget. It regenerates a capacity we need and if it helps Ukraine fire things that go bang that reduces the number of potential enemies we may have to face then quite happy.
What actually impresses me is there is another glimmer of hope that HMG is letting industry and finance sort out the solutions,
Agreed, this is the way that government should be operating to support British industries- if what’s being reported is accurate. I would hope for more of the same- although disappointing that the government felt they couldn’t give a loan guarantee to H&W for a far smaller amount of money. Makes one wonder what the finances over there were really like, although at the same time it does punish those trying to make a big change for the better.
My only hope is that what we’re paying for with Forgemasters will be suitable for making barrels for what we have on order; it would be deeply unlikely, but not outside the realms of what the British government is capable of, for them to only buy something suitable for making the AS90’s 39 calibre barrel or something similarly stupid.
More Archer SPGs being ordered to replace the donated AS90s?
These additional 16 donated AS90s are biting into the army’s artillery capability.
The replacement is going to be the RCH155, which is a Sunak decision not an army decision.
The big question with that is when they’ll get built, as there are already over 600 other Boxer variants on order and the build rate is only circa 60 per year.
If the AS90s come out of British Army stock,this is a major capability gap that doesn’t look like being filled quickly.
You assume one positive is the AS90 must be performing well in Ukraine. Otherwise they wouldn’t be requesting more.
Yes, the AS-90s came out of British Army stock. Where else would they come from?!
Rather than focus on just this recent decision, we need to reflect on the fact this will be at least the 3rd delivery of AS-90s to Ukraine. The BA have very few left that are on the active list.
Interesting that the venerable AS-90 is doing so well. It was meant to have been upgraded to Braveheart spec well over 20 years ago but that programme was scrapped so these equipments have been hardly improved since the early 90s.
It does seem to have done very well in Ukraine.
We can check the equipment list at the end of October for how many AS90 are left in British stock.
I’d be surprised if it breaks 20.
See my reply to SB sent a few minutes ago. Could be 47 or 29 left on the active list – or a figure 6 less than those.
A high number on the inactive list of course.
My estimates are either 41 or 23 left on the active list – sources vary. But it may be a few less than that.
Staggering, considering we bought 179 of them for the post-Cold War era.
Pretty concerning. Considering RCH155 has no disclosed orders numbers and timeline at this point.
MoD claim that RCH155 requires further development. When developed, trialled and tested and modified if necessary, then it can be batch produced, but many other Boxers will be on the build line.
So, it will take ages to field. For that reason alone, when we have virtually no 155mm artillery, it is a stupid choice. Well done Sunak!
I more meant active army stock, rather than the ones that had been left to atrophy / cannabalised for spares etc.
The Swedish MoD have no more secondhand Mk1 Archers ie those on the Volvo chassis, to sell us. Maybe we could buy the new Mk2s on the MAN 8×8 chassis. But that costs money and Rachel Reeves hasn’t got any and we are before the SDR publication so an early order would seem unlikely.
We have very few 155mm SPGs left. It’s hard to pin down a figure for how many AS-90 we have left. One battery in Estonia currently manned by 1RHA seems to be the only AS-90s in Field Force hands. Few, if any, in the Trg Org such as RSA. Not sure how many fit guns on the active list are in storage but it can’t be many.
If we had to go to General War tomorrow (or even within the next 3 to 5 years), we would be screwed.
Depends how many of the inactive ones can be fixed?
I appreciate they will have been thoroughly STOROBed etc.
I’m guessing mostly if obsolete electronics that are EoL.
Yes, very true. MoD does not give out such detailed info.
Yes – 10 of those 16 have been sent. When the other 6 have gone, then BA will have 41 or 23 left on the active list – depends which accounts you believe!
A big reduction from the 179 we had when they were introduced in the early 90s (to start the post-Cold War era).
UK export finance while we cant even finance our own shipyards to build the Fleet Solid Support (FSS) program. Absolute disgrace.
Politics is a weird business. As an aside, there is no money to pay pensioners up to £300 winter fuel allowance, but enough for all MPs on their large salaries to have all of their domestic heating bills paid.
We need to invest in infrastructure but one of the first acts of the government was to cancel the A303 improvement program so a major bottleneck on a trunk road isn’t dealt with? Which is rather vital if you are in the Exeter direction…
Drove down the dual carriageway bit of the A303 over the weekend. Generally excellent section of road.
There were a host of improvements in play for the A303. Have they all been cancelled or just the £2bn Stonehenge tunnel (which would never have been brought in for £2bn)?
Agree. I’ve been going that way since I was a child to North Devon. Once took 7 hours, now around 4. My PB is 3 and a half dead of night.
The issue is that single lane bit from Winterbourne Stoke past Stonehenge.
Beyond it there are plenty of duel sections now.
London end, pre Amesbury roundabout is fine too
madness , along with a partly built section of railway to portishead
Well they have to be warm and toastie don’t they in order to be able to think…..
Don’t forget they will contribute far more to this great Nations wellbeing over the next 5 years than those old pensioners did – working down the pit, in steel mills , contstructing the motorways …oh and getting shot at of course.
Far far more…
Using our money to start ww3 war mongers will not be happy until a bit bomb lands on the UK. Stop this now
On the website ukpublicspending for 2025
Defence Spending
Defence total : £66.2 Billion
Defence : £52.9 Billion
Foreign military aid: £3.3 Billion
Foreign economic aid: £6.5 Billion
2024 is
Defence total : £63.9 Billion
Defence : £51.5 Billion
Foreign military aid: £2.5 Billion
Foreign economic aid: £7.2 Billion
Nice to see they have their priorities right…
I assume that Foreign military aid part of the defence budget is mostly for Ukraine although it was £3.8 billion in 2010 so maybe not
I wonder if there will be an article here about the FV432 Bulldog about to go on exercise in Germany allegedly being called a ‘rustbucket” that always breaks down by British soldiers.
Is available on Daily Mail and several other sources.
Should we be surprised? ISD was 1962!!
Well, true!