Rheinmetall opens Telford gun hall as UK tank barrel production returns

Rheinmetall has begun making tank and artillery barrels at a newly built factory in Telford, Shropshire, opened on Thursday by the UK defence secretary, Wes Streeting. It restores to Britain a capability it had gone without for 20 years, during which it could not put a barrel on its tanks without buying from abroad.

The German arms maker moved so quickly that its chief executive, Armin Papperger, said investment began "off the back of a handshake" with Gen Sir Roly Walker, chief of the general staff, before Christmas last year, without waiting for a formal contract. Eight months later, the first barrels have been produced. Papperger said he is in talks to make more ammunition in the UK as well, with a decision due in six to eight months.

Streeting said it was not enough to out-innovate those who would wish the UK harm. "We must also out-produce them too," he said. "Because advantage increasingly belongs to those who can manufacture at scale and field the capability fastest."

From steel cylinder to rifled barrel

The plant takes a 3.2 tonne, 8-metre cylinder of specialised steel alloy and drills a hole through it. Surfaces are honed to remove imperfections before another tool cuts spiral rifling to improve artillery accuracy. A specialised machine — one of only two in the world — raises the pressure inside the barrel to about 15,000 times that of air at sea level, hardening it for shells that can travel as far as 30km (18 miles).

Artillery still matters

Walker said the war in Ukraine had shown the continued importance of conventional firepower. "In Ukraine, we know that both sides fire tens of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition every day, and that generates a weight of fire and levels of lethality across the battlefield that drones alone cannot replicate," he said at the factory opening.

He described as "sad" the end of British artillery manufacture, which had lasted through the Napoleonic wars, two world wars and the cold war. Much of it took place at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, which opened in the 17th century and ceased production in 1967, with the work scattered around the country and then sometimes moving abroad.

Output and expansion

The gun hall will initially make barrels for German-made self-propelled, remote-control howitzers that fire Nato-standard 155mm rounds. Later it will also make smaller 120mm tank barrels, including for the Challenger 3 tank, now in final testing, and for a British version of the remote-control howitzer planned after May 2028.

Capacity is 245 barrels and 50 breeches a year, though Papperger said output could theoretically reach 1,000 within four or five years if orders come in. Exports may also be on the agenda. He said Nato allies can manage with lower volumes than Russia and its client states because of higher quality: a Russian barrel can fire about 500 times before breaking, against as many as 4,000 shots for a barrel from Telford.

Defence spending boom

The Telford investment followed a 2024 agreement between Keir Starmer and his then German counterpart, Olaf Scholz. Rheinmetall employs about 685 people in Telford, but only 35 work in the gun hall, rising to 100 at full capacity; most staff make Challenger and Boxer armoured vehicles in a joint venture with BAE Systems.

Rheinmetall's market value has risen from about €4.2bn (£3.5bn) in the days before Russia's invasion of Ukraine to €47bn on Wednesday, though it has fallen back from a peak of nearly double that last year. In 2024, US intelligence services reportedly foiled a Russian plot to assassinate Papperger. He said more governments now want control over their weapons production.

"To be a strong partner, you need strong armies," Papperger said. "But on the other side, you need a strong industry. And this is what we do at the moment. We build up the industry."

Source: The Guardian Business.