Rheinmetall has confirmed it will establish a new advanced barrel manufacturing facility in Telford, delivering over £400 million in economic investment and creating more than 400 jobs over the next decade, according to an announcement.
The facility, dubbed the “Gun Hall,” will produce large-calibre barrels and marks the first time since 2016 that the UK will have domestic capacity for such manufacturing. Production is expected to begin by 2027, and Rheinmetall describes the investment as a major step in re-establishing sovereign defence capabilities in the UK.
The company has already placed orders for long-lead manufacturing equipment to support delivery.
The new plant will use British steel and focus on next-generation barrel systems for both UK and allied platforms. According to the company, the site will “revitalise the local industry and boost prosperity in Telford and beyond,” while also playing a central role in the UK’s strategic defence partnership under the Trinity House Agreement.
The investment is also part of a broader strategy by Rheinmetall UK, which has already committed over £70 million to develop domestic capabilities. This includes expansions to support Boxer armoured vehicle and Challenger 3 main battle tank production, and the development of a new UK headquarters and collaboration centre in Bristol.
Armin Papperger, CEO and Chairman of Rheinmetall Germany, said in the release: “This isn’t just an investment – it’s a statement. We’re delivering the infrastructure, the technology, and the ambition to place the UK at the forefront of global defence manufacturing.”
Mark Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin, stated: “This is fantastic news for the whole of Shropshire – for local suppliers and for the employment and skills this major investment will bring.” He added that he had worked closely with Rheinmetall and government ministers to help secure the deal.
Beyond national goals, Rheinmetall noted the facility would strengthen NATO’s industrial base by supplying advanced, interoperable systems across allied nations. The company says the Gun Hall will support the British Army’s effort to “triple its warfighting power by 2030,” particularly in light of lessons drawn from modern high-threat environments such as Ukraine.
Rheinmetall also underscored its commitment to long-term UK defence skills development, with plans to expand apprenticeships, graduate schemes, and industrial placements, while integrating more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) into its supply chain.
Excellent hopefully a precursor to a decent number of RCH-155 gun systems being ordered. What other barrels could this site support? Naval guns of medium calibre?
A navalised 6 inch/ 155 gun mount would be a great idea.
We tried that before for the T45…..but Cameron and Osborne cancelled it to ‘save money’ a phase that just means cost billion more in a decades time…..
So as we didn’t have a UK large calibre we had to buy the US 5” for T26 and lost the ability to just have a 155mm shell line…..
Judging by what Rory Stewart said about Defence Committee discussions mid teens we are lucky to have a blue water navy at all, if some had got their way in this ‘new safe World’ they apparently saw back then despite being post Crimea amazingly enough any armaments by their logic apparently was to bought in from foreign suppliers. The delusion is beyond belief.
That was quiet nutty.
I don’t think that it would ever have happened TBH.
UK arms are always a hot potato because of the issues around exporting licences. Counter to that is the well paid jobs argument; IP argument; as well as the FMS and worse the various bits of US legislation that are used to hobble foreign arms manufacturers.
So actually Blair got it because it stopped him being all presidential
Brown got it because of the jobs and tax aspects
Osborne didn’t get it as he just saw large lumps of cash going out of treasury.
Cameron did eventually get it when he needed an aircraft carrier and couldn’t send one to Libya.
The smugness of Osborne versus actually his ability to do just about anything is just so enormous.
The Cameron Conservative Party was full of these types. Matt Hancock “the NHS is a religion sacrifice money to it now!” was another.
“Plebgate” and “raise foreign aid to 0.7% to give me a vast slush fund” Andrew Mitchell was another.
It’s like it had some sort of evil, political idiot magnet.
Wasn’t it about five million quid saved?
It might have been £5m for the cost of the next stage of firing single shots and testing accuracy and safety.
Next phase after that was to build and test the ammunition handling system. I can’t see that being done for £5m.
To make a deployable gun with the software and support was going to be far more than that.
Look at the price of the BAE 5″ and that gives you a metric for buying a fully developed system.
Yes. I think overral costs for full development and production over a number of years years was around three hundred million which nower days looks like a small amount.
Not sure that is in today’s money.
£300m in 2005 money is an awful lot when you consider that the 5” are about £55m each in today’s money.
Add to that the risk factors.
BAE was a dirty acronym at that point as they were being blamed for the NIMROD MRA mess – so we’re not to be trusted. As I’ve said before that wasn’t really fair as they were being blamed for a lot of MoD penny pinching
Yes, but how many 55 million pound systems are required? The US 5″ is a tried and test mount and I guess the TMF was an easy cancellation in that era. BAE can show that big is not always beautiful as I have friends who can testify to that by working for them and dealing with them.
As BAE now owns Bofors, what of their 120mm dual purpose naval gun, with a high rate of fire?
120mm smoothbore guns for CR3, they’re also a Rheinmetall product.
It has to be boxer related. They wouldnt put in the investment if they weren’t pretty sure it would pay off and the only confirmed use is the RCH-155. There might be a surprise in the SDSR and another platform also ordered (such as a replacement for the light guns) but seems unlikely.
Alrhough for sure the L118 needs replacing as it would be out ranged by almost any military that isn’t an insurgency.
I’d like to see the BAE MV777 replace the light guns.
It’s light, air transportable, quick to set up and hard hitting. By moving over to MV777 the UK would only need to manufacture 155mm calibre ammo, easing supply issues and hopefully meaning production can be standardised onto that one calibre.
The light guns can be given to Ukraine with all their ammo once the replacement howitzers are in service
I think that might be likely. Wasn’t the m777 line reopened in the UK recently. It’s possible they have been given the heads up that an order is coming following the SDSR.
It’s the weight of 155 ammo that’s keeping light gun in service with the airborne and commando units
The UK-Germany agreement for a joint procurement for RCH-156 of up to 400 vehicles. The Bundeswehr has public ally disclosed it wants 160, so it looks like the UK could be up to 240 units. Though at the moment only 116 units for delivery by 2030 has been reported.
Supposedly part of the deal of buying RCH 155 is that the gun barrels are manufactured in the UK.
Spock, I don’t for one minute think that MoD will buy anything like 240 RCH-155. We only bought 179 AS-90s which is the predecessor system. It seems to be ‘a rule’ that we always buy a smaller fleet of equipment as a replacement.
Large calibre guns ain’t like they used to be.
“It’s not the size that matters”. (apparently)
“it’s not the length of the barrel, it’s the caliber that matters” 😉
Medieval mortars would like a word!
On a serious note, I wonder if guided mortar rounds in larger calibres than 120mm could be a reasonable alternative to Brimstone for overwatch?
I dread to think how much explosive filler you could fit in a 155 mortar!
I do actually see some good signs of re industrialisation going on, love them or hate them when it comes to heavy manufacturing and engineering, especially in defence Labour seem to get it more than the last lot. After all not only have the stopped a CCP plot to end virgin steel production in the UK ( and if anyone thinks it was not a CCP political warfare opperation I have a bridge to sell you), they have negotiated the complete removal of tariffs on British steel from both the U.S. and EU… that more than the other lot ever did..
Cannot really say that. Cameron blocked a takeover of one of the UK pharma companies and also ensured that shipyards got new destroyers, frigates and subs to build.
Plus we were in the E U which prohibited state aid to industry like steel etc. there also wasn’t any tariffs on steel to the USA and as they hadn’t openly insulted Trump like labour did, would probably not have been in the position we were.
Let’s not forget that most of what labour are claiming had already had its foundations set by the Tories as labour haven’t been in power long enough to have started them.
I’d actually defend BW who was actually very proud of being a Conservative and having Nationalised SFM (it’s owned by MOD) and investing £400 million in it. He even mentioned it in his resignation speech !
SFM is one Strategic Company that just couldn’t be allowed to fail, the consequences to the NDE and our relationship with the US would have been erm unpleasant !
Yes we absolutely need our own Steel Manufacturer and should be concentrating on the high end / high value Steels, but even high quality Steel (HY80 and above) can be bought from very reliable partners (France, Sweden and Australia). But you can’t just go out and buy a reactor Pressure vessel or they other very interesting products which SFM make for ourselves and Allies (one of the latter was rumoured to provide the prod BW needed to get Treasury approval).
Which is exactly why we needed to keep our blast furnaces, and probably why the Chinese tried to shut them down.
Only a blast furnace can produce ‘hard’ steel, used in railway tracks, RSJs and…. Gun barrels.
I wouldnt trust the Chinese with any of our vital infrastructure and probably why the government stepped in this time. However I do wonder if the Chinese had done this several ago whether the government (either flavour) would have done anything similar- somehow I doubt it.