The first British-made artillery barrels are being delivered to Ukraine under a £61 million contract with Sheffield Forgemasters, marking the first time forged artillery barrels have been produced in the UK for almost two decades.
The 105mm and 155mm gun barrels, 150 in total, are being manufactured at the Yorkshire firm under a contract awarded by the UK Government to BAE Systems and announced by President Zelensky last year, with the work supporting hundreds of jobs in Sheffield and more than 60 businesses across the UK supply chain standing to benefit. The first four barrels have been shipped as development forgings, allowing Ukraine to test its own manufacturing processes, and the Sheffield line is now turning out eight forgings a month, with the barrels forged in Yorkshire before being sent to Ukraine for finishing and integration.
The announcement came as Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis visited Sheffield Forgemasters for the first time as a minister, having previously toured the site as Mayor of South Yorkshire. “Steel forged in Sheffield defended Britain in its darkest hours. The barrels produced here in South Yorkshire – the first made in Britain in almost two decades – will help Ukraine on the battlefield, while creating good, skilled jobs in the UK,” he said, as quoted in the announcement. “Our Defence Investment Plan backed by £298 billion is delivering greater national security for our nation and our allies, and opportunities for people across the UK. This is about rearming Europe by reindustrialising places like South Yorkshire.”
Sheffield Forgemasters, which manufactures specialist steel forgings and castings for critical defence programmes and employs 780 skilled staff, has been owned by the Ministry of Defence since its nationalisation in 2021, a move driven principally by the need to secure supply for the nuclear submarine programme. The government say it invested more than £420 million of additional funding in the company last year to bolster sovereign steelmaking for defence, including gun barrels and submarine components, and the firm is building a new 13,000 tonne forging line and a 30,000 square metre machining hall as part of an MoD-funded £1.3 billion recapitalisation programme.
The barrel work builds on the opening of BAE Systems’ new £25 million artillery factory in Sheffield, which became operational earlier this year and has created a further 100 highly skilled jobs, consolidating the city’s position as the home of UK howitzer production. The loss of domestic barrel forging capability had long been identified as a gap in the UK’s defence industrial base, with barrels previously sourced from overseas suppliers, and the war in Ukraine, in which artillery has dominated the battlefield and barrel wear has proven a constant drain on gun availability, has lent the shortfall a new urgency.
The Sheffield production forms part of the UK’s wider package of military support for Ukraine, and the MoD says the return of domestic barrel manufacture strengthens the defence industrial base while delivering skilled employment and investment in communities across the country, with Forgemasters’ sovereign steelmaking serving civil nuclear and offshore energy work alongside its military programmes.
I though BAES had a facility in Barrow that could recondition worn out barrels?
Great news that we are back in the barrel business. Very specialist so well done all.
Wasn’t BAE manufacturing parts for M777 but not barrels? Could well be wrong on that.
I’m pretty sure that’s only BAEs american division
When I checked last year it was stated parts for the M777 were still being produced here at Barrow, in particular the titanium parts. Seems that is still the case.
Barrow used to be BAE’s centre of gun barrel excellence…..I think the barrel manufacturing was wound down.
It is possible that relining was still going on using parts from elsewhere….
In 2009 forgemasters asked HMG for a 80 million loan, not a subsidy They were in trouble but there was a lucrative gap in the nuclear industry., they felt they could fill. Cameron refused. He like ALL politicians does not see armed forces need industrial might behind them. The Chinese certainly see it. So the company muddles on eventually going bust. Panic ensues Whitehall and many millions of taxpayers cash save what’s little is left of the Sheffield steel industry. The fact we have not manufactured barrels for decades says it all for me. Politicians common sense and even intelligence A.W.O.L.
The solution was the MOD leaned on it two biggest suppliers BAE Systems and Babcock to provided the loan. It still wasn’t enough to keep Forgemasters going, hence why it was nationalised
If it was 2009, Brown was PM. Not Cameron.
In the main I am against Government getting involved in Manufacturing on a long term basis as the simple fact is U.K Politicians and the CS just do not have the skills or understanding to run companies that make things (see British Leyland, Upper and Lower Clyde Shipbuilding etc etc).
Think about it, what does Government and the CS actually do ? They collect revenue and resources from anyone and anything that is Taxable and then redistributes it to whatever they think will be popular, they are aided by a CS that has 100’s of years inbred experience of assisting them and ensuring the process is as convoluted and expensive as possible.
That’s 180 degrees the opposite of what Industry, Farming, businesses or even the ordinary wage earners do !
SFM didn’t just need another loan to “get by”, it had been surviving on “getting by” for decades and was over reliant on just one or two important customers who had a habit on not ordering anything or too much in a cycle that just ground SFM down.
So when it was at a tipping point where “getting by” just wasn’t an option due to decades of underinvestment resulting in out of date infrastructure and equipment it wasn’t a loan it needed it was a wealthy and cooperative partner.
Well that partner turned out to be HMG who just happen to be the main culprits of the “boom and bust” order book and they also have a very close relationship with the other Major Customer. The double crunch was that just as SFM was heading to oblivion the U.K and US both needed SFM to survive so they could renew and expand their SSN / SSBN fleets. What probably added extra pressure was the AUKUS Treaty was in the offing and it is 100% dependant on the U.K. being able to produce the reactors (spooky that was announced just 3 weeks after SFM was bought out).
Happily common sense intervened and against every credo they have the Tory Government bought out SFM for £2.3 million, put it under the MOD and left the existing experienced Management Team to run it and pumped in the necessary funds to completely modernise and enlarge SFMs capabilities.
TBH the timing of it was God sent because the following year Putin invaded Ukraine and all of a sudden UK realised it was 100% dependant on US or EU to supply lots of our basic military needs. Happily some bright spark pointed out that one of SFMs predecessors used to build Artillery on a rather large scale at the River Don site.
The major castings press that SFM had was a vi Titian’s unit that used to be steam powered but was converted to hydraulic. That shows the level of historic under investment.
Hi SB, I don’t know if you have ever visited the SFM Don Valley works but it was like walking into a Victorian Steam Punk Industrial Museum, one bit of it was still recognisably where the 15”/42 MK1 guns and turrets were forged, machined, wire wound, heat treated, Oil quenched etc etc.
Funny thing is new barrel making kit and the old still work on similar principles (except for wire winding) and most of it is vertical !
The bit in the article I didn’t get was Ukraine finishing and integrating them ? Does that imply that we are incapable of producing a ready to fit replacement barrel ? Or is that where BAe / Rheinmetal step in ?
Either way IMHO its a massive step in the right direction, I know some thought had gone into looking at what would DNE do if SFM had folded and the nearest company covered by NPT that could produce reactor and the other forgings and could machine them was “Le Creusot (Framatome).
Can you imagine that bright idea and what France would charge post the AUKUS snub ? 😩
OT, It’s all about the StormFighter!!!! 😆
Hope we see an article here soon.
Not to mention Canada joining GCAP officially (albeit as an observer). Lots of interesting news out today.
Yep. Stormfighter though…..I guess they thought it’d work next to Stormshroud and Stormshadow?
I read it and thought of TIE Fighters, maybe we’ll have a few X wings and Snowspeeders for the RM!
Other minor detail possibly missed by most, Finnart Oil Terminal will be the base of RN autonomous MCM. Just the Wilton ones or others, don’t know.
Why?? There are 3 HMNB sitting half empty.
Location, location, location ! HMNB Clyde is the no 1 priority target for covert mining, close access to that off and its CASD nullified.
Exactly. So why not put tjem there, with direct access down to open sea.
Finnart is on Loch Long, which our subs don’t use to reach open sea.
Would make more sense to put them in Greenock!
And as said regards the Wilton USV, the rest of the MTXG is in Pompey where much of our MCMV have always been.
Just use the vacated berths at Faslane for 12 Sandown which have been cut.
Well it’s not like we need them with no tubes or shells