For the last 20 years, Britain was unable to put a barrel on its tanks without buying from abroad. Relying on foreign allies seemed like a reasonable choice during years of relative security (for wealthy countries at least) after the end of the cold war. But Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has changed the calculation – and prompted a scramble to rearm among European countries, including the UK.
Evidence of that scramble was on display on Thursday in Shropshire, where the UK defence secretary, Wes Streeting, opened a factory hastily constructed by Germany’s Rheinmetall to make barrels for artillery and British tanks. Such was the urgency that Rheinmetall’s chief executive, Armin Papperger, said the company had started investment “off the back of a handshake” before Christmas last year with Gen Sir Roly Walker, who leads the British army as chief of the general staff, without waiting for a formal contract. Eight months later, production of the first barrels at the factory in Telford has started.
Papperger said he was in talks to produce more ammunition in the UK as well, with a decision due in the next six to eight months. Streeting said: “It is not enough to simply out-innovate those who would wish us harm – though we must. We must also out-produce them too.
Because advantage increasingly belongs to those who can manufacture at scale and field the capability fastest.” The factory takes a 3.2 tonne, 8-metre cylinder of specialised steel alloy and drills a hole through it to make the barrel shape. The surfaces are then honed to remove imperfections, before another turning tool adds spiral rifling to add to artillery accuracy. A specialised machine – one of only two in the world – increases the pressure inside the barrel to about 15,000 times the air at sea level to harden it for the explosive power needed to propel shells as far as 30km (18 miles).
The Ukraine war will go down in history as the moment when militaries woke up to the brutal new reality of drone warfare. But for all the focus on uncrewed weapons, Walker said they cannot rival more traditional armaments for sheer firepower. He said it had been “sad” when the UK was unable to continue centuries of artillery manufacture that had lasted through the Napoleonic wars, two world wars and the cold war.
Much of that work was carried out at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, which opened in the 17th century (and whose workers set up a football club that moved to north London in 1913). Yet production ceased in 1967, with the work scattered first around the country and then in some cases moving abroad. The new Telford gun hall will bring that capability back to the UK, albeit starting with production for guns for German-made, self-propelled, remote-control howitzers that take Nato-standard 155mm ammunition.
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