The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the RCH 155 artillery project, currently in the assessment phase, is expected to support over 400 jobs through a new Rheinmetall UK gun barrel factory.
However, the final number of artillery systems the UK intends to procure remains unclear.
In response to a parliamentary question from James Cartlidge, Conservative MP for South Suffolk, Defence Minister Maria Eagle stated:
“The Remote Controlled Howitzer 155mm (RCH 155) project is currently in the assessment phase with the intention of delivering the system within this decade, therefore, it is not possible to provide a total figure at present.”
While the job support figure has been outlined, the number of RCH 155 units the UK may eventually acquire is less definitive. The UK and Germany are jointly developing the RCH 155 artillery as part of a long-range fires capability expansion.
The project, based on the Boxer 8×8 platform, involves the integration of a remote-controlled 155mm howitzer module. During DefenceIQ’s International Armoured Vehicle event, it was indicated that Germany plans to acquire 160 Boxer-based artillery systems as part of a broader restructuring of its long-range fires capability.
However, while the joint UK-Germany programme has discussed a potential combined procurement of up to 400 units, the exact division between the two nations remains fluid.
This joint procurement effort follows an agreement signed in 2024 between the UK and Germany, which is aimed at co-developing the RCH 155 system. The commitment to this project reflects the growing need for enhanced long-range artillery within NATO forces, driven by lessons learned from the conflict in Ukraine.
Despite initial estimates, the UK’s final number of RCH 155 units may evolve as strategic assessments and budget considerations progress. The project is expected to be delivered within this decade, with the joint procurement potentially valued at over £3 billion.
This is rapidly turning into yet another massive cock up!
Just what are the RA regts that had AS 90 and are waiting for a new gun actually doing? Driving around in land rovers with a drainpipe on top shouting BANG no doubt🙄
Shouting
“It’s my Archer.”
“No, it’s my Archer.”
“No, it’s my Archer.”
The other very worrying thing is that has a prototype been made ? Do we even know it is going to work
Arent they alread manufacturing the RCH155 for Ukraine already so unless there’s more to do maybe the UK is in a queue for it or the supply chain still hasn’t been fully sorted out yet. Not sure it’s 100% sensible just to go with all wheels as many of us here have questioned before, when there’s plenty of good tracked systems ready to go to have a good mix. Plus Archer. I guess the main thing is getting a decent mass of fires platforms asap.
Not an issue for the tac batteries tbf.
Major issue seems to be the stalled defence review. It’s been finished for ages and they are sitting on it. They are sitting on it because they don’t like what it says. The longer they sit on it procrastinating the worse things like this will get.
More and more decisions like AS90 replacement are becoming vital.
My guess is they are working on ‘the optics’. They won’t publish it until they have policies, defence pacts, manufacturing programs and finance ( access to EU finds) in place which enable them to say it will happen. They will spin re-shuffling, defence pacts and a handful of capital programs as delivering the review. Imagine Starmer at Prime Minister’s question time and you get the idea..’ under this government….’. NMH and RCH155 numbers will be announced with great fanfare, maybe an MRSS increase from 3 to 6, maybe a few more A400s. F-35 numbers might be paused at 72 ish so the whole package fits in the 2.5%
Do those Nog Heads in government realise time is running out!
They’re gambling, and like any gambler they have their fingers crossed… It’ll be good this, it’ll good this time. Until one day it isn’t.
The trouble is there is so much to put right, it wouldn’t surprise if they are simply struggling with the enormity of the challenge and it is not just facing the UK forces, but the rest of the Western World’s including the US…
We are in a bit of a pickle really.
Ho hum, CR
Does anyone know whether Larkhill has actually got their hands on one to play with yet?
I’d say with confidence, no.
I have a very bad feeling about this latest SDR. It’s going to be a nothing report. I can see it coming. Nearly thirty years of messing up the services and it hasn’t stopped yet.
Why expect a “nothing ” report? If the “experts” have had plenty of time to make an thorough analysis for this SDR then the outcome should still be to a more decent standard and not mediocre no matter how brief or comprehensive it is.
We have been listening to “experts” for thirty years and we have the weakest armed forces for two hundred years, relative to technology. We have only had further cuts since July 2024, no new orders and promise of something (?) later. It has already been suggested that the SDR will be an “interim report” and capital growth, if any, will wait until the autumn. Why would I be optimistic?
This equipment replaces AS-90, which BTW is doing a brilliant job in Ukraine, therefore the order should be for 179.
How can they not know what numbers they need?
They are reorganising via doing FUTURE SOLDIER…Divisional structure, Brigade structure, and so on
Those structures then dictate how many you want front line and reserve \ training as a minimum operational requirement…
I like the idea of RCH 155 and support its purchase; however, our procurement process is overly complicated, there is a lack of urgency, and there is a serious lack of common sense.
ONLY a simple artillery design is needed, as cheap as possible. WHY,? because it will be targeted by drones
ATTRITION will be high
“Quick to build and easy to use” is the way forward
Lessons learned from the conflict in Ukraine. NOPE
They don’t seem to understand what’s happening on the ground in Ukraine at all💯
Further to your comments,
Bohdana SPH battle proven and being built in the middle of a war €3m
ArcherSPH $10m latest price
Caesar SPH $4-7 M depending on spec
RCH unproven not yet in service so costs WILL go up £12m
Now I’m sure that if Supacat can deliver an AA system to Ukraine why on earth cant a British firm develop a gun for us?
No we will pay mega bucks for a Gucci system that is not working yet🤬
If we were to implement an interim 155mm solution like the Bohdana, what could be used as the chassis?
They want to triple the army’s lethality you know. The army without history’s biggest killer on the battlefield, artillery (I don’t count immobile towed artillery which these days is classed as nothing more than a target) . The army is a joke, a handful of tanks, no artillery, crumbling housing for personnel, no wonder they can’t meet either retention or recruitment figures.
The situation at the moment seems to be one of decision paralysis. The question is why?
If we are being cynical we could argue that it is situation normal, after all governments have been kicking cans down the road for as long as anyone can remember. The result is our infrastructure from schools, to hospitals, courts, barracks, the list in endless, is crumbling. Our armed forces are too small and equipment is taking too long to arrive. Now we face a huge and accelerating threat environment that has being coming for decades but seems to have hit home in just the last 4 to 6 months and Europe, indeed the whole of the Western World, finds itself totally unprepared.
This UK government now finds itself left facing a fast changing geopolitical landscape with too little in the way of an industrial base and hollowed out armed forces. It would be bad enough if it situation was bad but stable buut add in the highly unstable nature of geopolitics at the moment and your problems start to multiply exponentially. If you are not careful, you get behind the decision curve and event control you.
I get the impression that the SDR and the conversations around it are possibly putting some very stark choices in front of politicians who now realised that they do not have the option of kicking the can down the road anymore. To mix my metaphors, the music has stopped for the last time and Starmer’s government is that one that will have to face up to the possibility of having to fight a major war in Europe at any moment and they will likely have very little say in the matter!
The big problem they face is that the solution will take 20 years at least to put in place but the threat is here, in their faces now! Someone was always going to draw the shittiest of short straws, many a politician has said admitted as such in the past (usually as they leave office!), but it looks like it has finally arrived.
I kinda feel sorry for them really, but only a little bit.
They need to get a grip and show some leadership or we will all be FUBAR. They can run and hide, or they can write their names into history
We will see.
Cheers CR
Starmer, Labour, get a grip? Sorry mate, great post, but our political class are shambolic, on both sides of the house.
You might be right, mate, but we will see. They haven’t been in power for a year yet and sometimes it takes a crisis to bring the best out of people.
However, I do think there is an element rabbit in the headlights at the moment and there will be an argument going on between the realists and those who are clinging to the business as usual model, probably because the enormity of what they would have to do if they faced up to the truth is simply more than they can comprehend. They are after all human.
They did, however, want the job and privilege of governing, so they caught the can and responsibility of navigating a minefield. Tough! They need to step up and get past the fright or we will all be in the most frightening and deepest of trouble
Cheers CR
As mentioned here many times, 116 is an old figure before the latest changes to rhe RA, when maybe as many as four Regiments, 1RHA, 19RA, 3RHA, 4RA, we’re in line for re equipping, when these Regiments supported 2 AI Brigades and 2 Strike Brigades.
With the endless changes to the Army ORBAT and regimental roles, that is now out of date.
3 RHA is now GMLRS. 4 RA supports 7 Brigade, uncertain if Boxer suits that formation.
My own guess remains from 60 to 90 guns, the Regiments don’t exist to support many more without structural changes or a great expansion in number of guns per Battery.
6 Regiments of AS90 at their peak, down to currently zero, beyond the 2 Archer Batteries needed to sustain 1 in Estonia.
An absolute shambles no journalist is capable of pinning a minister with on national TV or press conferences.
No accountability, therefore, they care not.
Again you might be right , mate. The British Army reduce to 60 to 90 guns. Madness. I know drones are having a big impact, but guns are still hugely important and will remain so for the foreseeable. Frankly, the size of the order for these guns will indicate how seriously both Germany and the UK are about rearming and standing up to Russia and the rest of the CRINK nations.
Fingers crossed
Cheers CR
I would have gone and bought that K9 myself, with build here in the UK as offered.
Cynically speaking, knowing how the Army manages to spaff money away and seems to insist on paying the highest prices ( see Boxer ) while ignoring cost effective procurement like more CH3, it was probably too cheap!
Then there’s the political angle, always more important to ministers than actually equipping their military correctly.
Surely this is not so hard to work out ?
The Army states its current needs in Arty platform numbers and ammo to stockpile.
The government states what it can afford from the army wishlist.