A GBP 53 million contract has been awarded for the production of key artillery weapon systems for the British Army’s new Remote Controlled Howitzer (RCH) 155, part of the service’s long-term replacement for the AS90 self-propelled gun.
The contract, awarded by the Organisation for Joint Armament Co-operation (OCCAR) on behalf of the British Army, will see ARTEC GmbH manufacture 37 weapon systems for the Boxer-based artillery platform.
The RCH 155 forms the Army’s Mobile Fires Platform (MFP), intended to restore and modernise artillery capability following the transfer of AS90 systems to Ukraine.
The contract covers the production of the weapon system elements of the artillery module, including the barrel, muzzle brake, breech, recoil system and trunnions used to mount the system to the turret.
The announcement also includes significant investment in Rheinmetall’s large-calibre gun barrel manufacturing facility in Telford, known as the Gun Hall.
Around GBP 30 million of the contract value will support development of the facility, which is expected to create roughly 100 highly skilled jobs as well as further employment across the wider UK defence supply chain.
The MOD say the investment will help establish a sovereign UK capability to produce large gun barrels at scale, improving resilience and surge capacity for future artillery production.
The RCH 155 combines the Boxer drive module with the Artillery Gun Module (AGM), a remotely operated turret and gun system. The platform can fire up to eight rounds per minute and strike targets at ranges of up to around 70 kilometres depending on the ammunition used.
The vehicle can deploy rapidly, operate with a crew of two and reach speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour, features intended to improve survivability against counter-battery threats.
Brigadier Toby Lambert, Head of International, Industry and Prosperity at Army Headquarters, said the contract represents a major step for both the Army and the UK defence industry.
“This contract is really great news — not only for our soldiers, but for the UK’s ever-increasing industrial base,” he said.
“It demonstrates a strengthening of our supply chains and delivers on our commitments made in the Trinity House Agreement with our close ally, Germany.”
Lambert added that the wider economic effects of the investment could extend beyond the immediate programme.
“The second order impacts of this award are far-reaching: the creation of high-skilled jobs combined with the drive for continued innovation will undoubtedly stimulate further investment in Defence,” he said. “This demonstrates another key step towards the Army’s continual modernisation programme, preparing our soldiers for the future fight.”
thats it, 37? is this a joke?
No mate, surely just part of incremental orders.
I do hope so, the write up is not clear on that either way. I feel 37 can in no way be a final total that would equip one full Regt and a few spares for trials, school of Artillery and war reserve. Let wait and see but not holding my breath we are seeing tiny orders when bigger one are needed.
You never know with HMG. Some Batteries of the 3 Regiments that need the guns might now be dedicated to using catapult to launch OWE, as seen when the CGS visited an exercise.
A bit like the Exactor Battery in MLRS Regiments.
Another thought, a useful way of saving money, they might just use some of the 600 or so Boxer on order as the chassis.
Not possible with a conventional SPG asset like K9.
If this is indeed all that will be ordered, well, the usual, utterly shameful.
But hopefully not.
Is it just me or does that article not clearly state what the money is for it can not be just for the barrels yet at that price it can not be for full vehicles, a bit of clarity is needed, or may be its just old age catch up on me and its there clear as day.
May be there is a cunning plan we do not know about and all will be good come DIP, but not holding out much hope as we all know that the DIP will be budget driven compromise which will likely be a cut not a total gain.
You say we have 3 regts to equip Daniele. But we only have 2 arm inf bdes, so surely we are looking at just two regts? Do you think it’s going to equip 7 LM Bde as well? It looks a big beast to mix in with a light mechanised Foxhound Bde Gp.
The 37 number does look odd. It would equip two regts each with 18 guns (3 btys of 6) but leave just one gun for trials and training, which can’t be right, and none at all in reserve!
The most logical conclusion would be that this is just a preliminary order to get manufacturing started and there will be a subsequent order later on. Have to hope so!
I note your point about the possibility.of OWE maybe equipping.the third battery in a regt. Interesting, but wouldn’t like to see a regt drop below 18 howitzer. A fourth battery with OWE would be better, it can ‘t be that expensive a system.
Martin, of course it is Tranche 1. We have always ordered military platform in tranches.
Hope so, would be wise to order early and get things set up, hope you are right you normally are. As 37 seems a bit sad in numbers game.
With 14 Archers replacing the AS90s, 37 RCH 155 would bring us to a total of around 50 Howitzers. It really doesn’t sound like a lot. How many are people here expecting?
The DIP will be out of date in significantly less time than we have been waiting for it, but it should tell us.
I’m so confused, this seems like a miniscule amount of money for 37 systems? Is this just for the turrets? Also why only 37, it seems bizarre.
Just the turret not the boxer underneath i woupd assime
Is that it? A prime target for an enemy that’s 100% going to suffer attrition. 37? Might as well just not bother!
Doesnt include the turret….simply the gun elements to be fitted to the turret
Read the article and not just the title.
Cravendale, this is for the gun system, not even the complete turret, let alone the full vehicle. Its all clearly stated in the article.
Thanks for clarifying, I had a quick skim through but missed that bit.
£53M or £530M?
That seems a little too good to be true given the demonstrators were £52M for 2.
“The contract covers the production of the weapon system elements of the artillery module, including the barrel, muzzle brake, breech, recoil system and trunnions used to mount the system to the turret.”
Yeah sorry, I’d skimmed the article too much.
‘weapons systems’ could have meant anything from the sights on the RWS to the whole vehicles, in hindsight.
Trunnion is such a good word that I don’t want to look it up just yet. The definition might somehow spoil the word, so I’m letting it roll around in my head for a little bit longer.
It is just long lead time parts for Batch I reading between the lines.
Continuing with the spatter gun of small procurement contracts…..
👍🏻
All part of the dither, delay and then U-turn model of procurement favoured by our present lords and masters — cf. NMH.
Yay we finally got a number!
But really is anyone surprised about the pitifully small order? But a good vehicle all the same
Not sure if it’s firing on the move gimmick really works in battlefield conditions but here’s hoping it does
They must mean £23M for 37 turrets once you minus out the £30M facility costs?? Otherwise this is the deal of the century.
So 37 Boxer chassis that were going to be used to carry bods around. Will now be used as artillery units. Ergo, if they buy 63 more turrets thats another 63 chassis that cannot be used.
Army procurement. It really is about time for a clearout.
where did they pluck the number 37 from?
in service 2037 IOC 2041 NO DOUBT
There will be fewer Boxers carrying bods around and more Patrias.
37??
That’s 2 18 gun regiments and a prototype. So we are saying our ambition is to field one 2 brigade division.
37 to replace the 99 AS90s transferred to Ukraine… That’s really… typical?
68 AS90s were transferred to Ukraine.
Everywhere I look gives a different number. I’ve also seen it quoted as 32 + about from those remaining – total 197 were apparently delivered to UK originally. We only have about 14 Archers at the moment. I finished up (just now) doing an AI search and got ‘The UK has transferred its entire fleet of
approximately 68 to 99 AS-90 self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine across several batches, including systems for use and as spare parts, with final deliveries occurring in early 2025. The transfer included an initial 32 systems, followed by further shipments in April and September 2024, essentially exhausting the British Army’s inventory of these 155mm guns. Total Quantity: Reports indicate the transfer of all active and in-storage AS-90s, with numbers citing up to 99 total units (including donor/spare parts vehicles).
Initial Shipments: The UK initially donated 32 “battle-ready” AS-90s in 2023.
Subsequent Deliveries: Additional batches were sent throughout 2024, including a 10-gun package announced in September 2024.’
I don’t understand the small number. If the development contract proved satisfactory, why not order the full number you plan to deploy.
Or is the number restricted by the slow pace of Boxer vehicle production.
Good grief an order for something?
Surely there must be a mistake!
~Stil 37 seems very low especially considering the number of artilery systems recently disposed of (either directly or by donation to Urkaine).
Hang on 37 for £53 million and it was 3 for £52 million the other month, is there a sale on? buy 3 get 34 free? this story makes no sense at all
Read the effing article dumbass
I did its badly written and not totally clear, but aside of that may be you should tone your insults down a bit you not in the military hidding behind your rank now talking down to people. If you have nothing constructive to say then please say nothing.
“The contract covers the production of the weapon system elements of the artillery module, including the barrel, muzzle brake, breech, recoil system and trunnions used to mount the system to the turret.”
I get the armamnet only bit but the Boxer itself? existing chassis? Also the number. If we’re so committed to the system it really doesn’t make sense to order such a small number. If we are, for arguments sake, going to have a hundred SPG’s then why not order 100 now.
Got excited(ish) for a moment but basically the order is just for the gun.
Has line item budgeting written all over it. Next year we will order the turrets and the year after some of the chassis. The year after that we will pay to put them together.
This order has probably been placed for industry angle rather than the military requirement.
Looks like the DIP is just being bypassed.
Good spot. They have decided that since the Treasury will not agree to fund the whole thing, in order to minimise any political fallout they will they will publish selected salami slices. Think of it like buying ham in the supermarket in reverse…..lots of tiny slices in a plastic packet = higher price, and you can’t eat a big ham anyway. Confuse and impress the customer with slick packaging.
More word salad that we can’t understand, deliberately lost in the statement.
For context, the original requirement was for 116 guns, when we had 4 Regiments to equip.
Now, only 3.
So this surely isn’t the total unless somethings gone very wrong, we have no money, or we will use OWE more than guns.
What this says is we are going to buy them, but not just yet. Kinda silly. My previous comment was somewhat facetious but not really.
What we need to do, and it would probably be better for the Treasury as well is instead of looking at budgets on a yearly basis is to say (for example) we will commit to 60 bn for 5 years plus the rate of inflation. The MOD can then plan, and if they want new artillery next year they could save 10bn from this years budget and apply it to next and bam, we order all the stuff we want for that particular item in one go. Then whoever we order with barfs them out as soon as they can. Made up numbers but you get the jist. This would have the added bonus I suspect of saving an awful lot of money on chopping and changing contracts and cancelling projects due to budgetry changes. It might also install some fiscal discipline into the MOD.
So the gun, breech and mountings come in at around £620,000 each with 30m to develop the factory to be ready to produce more.
I assume this is the first batch or a test batch that they are going to test the hell out of?
How many rounds can each tube fire before needing replacement?
Guys, a lot of you are not reading the article. This is an order placed by the Prime Contractor (OCCAR) to just one of its subcontractors (ARTEC GmbH), not from MoD to the Prime. It is for part of the RCH-155, namely the artillery system. Not the turret. Not the complete vehicle. It is a £53m contract of which £30m helps to build and equip the factory, and £23m goes to buy 37 artillery systems ie gun, breech etc. It’s not an order for 37 complete vehicles or for 37 complete turrets. Its for the gun bit in the turret.
Why do people infer that we are only buying 37 SPGs? This is clearly Tranche 1. We always buy significant platforms in tranches.