Rheinmetall's Telford Gun Hall Restores UK Tank Barrel Production

Rheinmetall has started producing artillery and tank barrels in Telford, ending a 20-year stretch in which Britain could not put a barrel on its own tanks without buying from abroad. Eight months elapsed between the German company's investment decision and the first barrels rolling off the line.

Defence secretary Wes Streeting opened the Shropshire factory on Thursday. The speed was no accident. Rheinmetall's chief executive, Armin Papperger, said the company committed "off the back of a handshake" before Christmas last year with Gen Sir Roly Walker, the chief of the general staff — no formal contract required.

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 rewrote the arithmetic. Post-cold-war reliance on foreign allies looked reasonable during years of relative security. Now European countries, the UK included, are scrambling to rearm.

What does the factory actually make?

The process starts with a 3.2-tonne, 8-metre cylinder of specialised steel alloy. Workers drill a hole through it to form the barrel, hone the surfaces to strip imperfections, then add spiral rifling with a turning tool to sharpen artillery accuracy. A specialised machine — one of only two in the world — raises pressure inside the barrel to roughly 15,000 times the air at sea level, hardening it to propel shells as far as 30km.

The plant starts with barrels for German-made, self-propelled, remote-control howitzers firing Nato-standard 155mm ammunition. It will later handle slightly smaller 120mm tank barrels, including for the Challenger 3 — now in final testing — and a British version of the remote-control howitzer planned for after May 2028.

Annual capacity is 245 barrels plus 50 breeches, the part at the barrel's base. Papperger said output could theoretically reach 1,000 barrels a year within four or five years — but only if the orders come in. Exports may follow.

Why barrels, in a drone war?

Ukraine will be remembered as the moment militaries woke up to drone warfare. Walker still argues traditional firepower carries the day.

"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," Walker said in a speech at the opening.

He called it "sad" that the UK could not continue centuries of artillery manufacture that ran through the Napoleonic wars, two world wars and the cold war. Much of that work happened at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, which opened in the 17th century — and whose workers founded a football club that moved to north London in 1913. Production stopped in 1967; the work scattered around the country and, in some cases, went abroad.

Papperger also framed quality as Nato's edge. A Russian barrel fires about 500 rounds before breaking, he said, while Telford's products should survive as many as 4,000 shots.

Who pays, who wins?

The Telford investment followed a 2024 agreement between Keir Starmer, then prime minister, and Germany's Olaf Scholz — a wide-ranging pact for Europe's two largest military spenders to work more closely together.

The footprint is modest. Rheinmetall employs about 685 people in Telford, but only 35 will work in the gun hall, rising to 100 at full capacity — hardly enough to kickstart the "reindustrialisation" of Britain that Andy Burnham wants. Most Telford workers build Challenger and Boxer armoured vehicles in a joint venture with BAE Systems.

Rheinmetall itself has been among the biggest winners of Europe's defence spending surge and arms supplies to Ukraine. In 2024, US intelligence services reportedly foiled a Russian plot to assassinate Papperger, in apparent retaliation for the company's weapons production for Kyiv.

The market tells the story. Rheinmetall's value has climbed from about €4.2bn (£3.5bn) in the days before the invasion to €47bn on Wednesday, though it has fallen back from a peak of nearly double that last year. Alongside BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce, it has benefited from European governments cutting reliance on US arms while the White House shows willingness to divert supplies to its own military ahead of allies.

Papperger said more governments want control over their weapons production — something that could mollify Donald Trump, who has shown he will undermine previously firm alliances.

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

His next decision point is close: talks on producing more ammunition in the UK, with a call due within six to eight months.