New munitions factories and long-range weapons to back nearly 2000 jobs under Strategic Defence Review
Procurement of up to 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons and £1.5 billion to build at least six munitions and energetics factories.
- Procurement of up to 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons and £1.5bn to build at least six munitions and energetics factories.
- Work to create more than 1,000 new jobs and support around 800 more across the UK, driving defence as an engine for economic growth and supporting the Plan for Change.
- Delivers the Strategic Defence Review’s focus on warfighting readiness to deter and follows historic uplift in defence spending.
The UK will build at least six new munitions and energetics factories and thousands more long-range weapons to strengthen Britain’s Armed Forces and create new jobs across the country.
Through the Strategic Defence Review – published in the coming days – the UK’s defence and deterrence is being bolstered with thousands of long-range weapons and a new £1.5bn government investment in munitions and energetics factories.
Together the investment will back around 1,800 highly-skilled jobs across the UK, putting money in the pockets of working people, and supporting the government’s Plan for Change by driving growth in every region and nation.
The SDR recommends creating an ‘always on’ munitions production capacity in the UK allowing production to be scaled up at speed if needed. It says the MOD should also lay the industrial foundations for an uplift in munitions stockpiles to meet the demand of high-tempo warfare.
Taking the lessons from Ukraine which shows that our military is only as strong as the industry that stands behind it, the measures will boost British jobs while improving the warfighting readiness of both British Armed Forces and industry.
The additional funding will see UK munitions spend hit £6bn this Parliament. It follows the Prime Minister’s historic commitment to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, recognising the critical importance of military readiness in an era of heightened global uncertainty.
Commitments include:
- £1.5bn in an “always on” pipeline for munitions and building at least 6 new energetics and munitions factories in the UK. Creating more than 1,000 skilled manufacturing jobs, the factories will produce munitions and energetics, which are key components of weapons, including propellants, explosives, and pyrotechnics.
- Up to 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons for the UK Armed Forces, supporting around 800 defence jobs. The lessons from Ukraine demonstrate the importance of long-range weaponry and boosting our military capabilities.
The SDR sets a path for the next decade and beyond to transform defence and make the UK secure at home and strong abroad. It ends the hollowing out of our Armed Forces and will also drive innovation, jobs and growth across the country, allowing the UK to lead in a stronger NATO.
Defence Secretary, John Healey MP said: “The hard-fought lessons from Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine show a military is only as strong as the industry that stands behind them. We are strengthening the UK’s industrial base to better deter our adversaries and make the UK secure at home and strong abroad. We will embrace the Strategic Defence Review; making defence an engine for economic growth and boosting skilled jobs in every nation and region as part of our Government’s Plan for Change.”
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “A strong economy needs a strong national defence, and investing in weaponry and munitions and backing nearly 2,000 jobs across Britain in doing so is proof the two go hand-in-hand. We are delivering both security for working people in an uncertain world and good jobs, putting more money in people’s pockets as part of our Plan for Change. The new investments will form an ‘always-on’ approach for priority munitions. They will provide a steady drumbeat of investment to industry sustaining a thriving defence industrial base that drives growth and jobs to deliver on the Plan for Change, while strengthening the UK’s commitment to NATO. The funding will help transform the UK’s Armed Forces readiness and ability to endure in prolonged campaigns, providing the industrial foundations needed to support our Armed Forces in warfare, as demonstrated by the conflict in Ukraine.”
01 Jun 25. The BBC reported today that the defence review will send a “message to Moscow” about Britain’s “readiness to fight if required”, Defence Secretary John Healey has told the BBC.
Sources suggest that the announcement might include the purchase of a number of Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning jets along with the missiles.
He was speaking as the government announced it would spend £1.5bn on at least six new defence factories and create 1,800 jobs across the UK.
The strategic defence review, to be published on Monday, is expected to conclude the UK faces a “new era of threat” and will warn of the “immediate and pressing” danger posed by Russia and other countries, including China.
John Healey told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg the review would set out “big new investments in our national security” and send a strong signal to hostile states.
The Conservatives said they welcomed investment in new munitions but shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge called for “greater ambition for the pace and scale of rearmament our armed forces require”.
On a visit to a factory in Stevenage, where Storm Shadow missiles are assembled, Healey said the government would support the procurement up to 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons.
The new funding will see UK munitions spending hit £6bn during this parliament, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
Healey told the BBC: “Six billion over the next five years in factories like this which allow us not just to produce the munitions that equip our forces for the future but to create the jobs in every part of the UK – 1,800 new jobs in every nation of the United Kingdom.”
He added: “This is a message to Moscow as well. This is Britain standing behind making our Armed Forces stronger but making our industrial base stronger, and this is part of our readiness to fight if required, but the strength in which to deter those fights in the future.”
The war in Ukraine has highlighted serious deficiencies in the West’s ability to produce weapons and munitions, and senior British military officers have long warned about the UK’s depleted stockpiles.
As part of its defence review, the government said it would build new factories to make key munitions and explosives to have an “always on” munitions production capacity that could be scaled up quickly.
Long-range weapons including drones and missiles would be procured over several years.
Ministers said the extra investment – which came after Healey said that UK defence spending would rise to 3% of GDP by 2034 at the latest – would strengthen the armed forces and boost British jobs.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “A strong economy needs a strong national defence, and investing in weaponry and munitions and backing nearly 2,000 jobs across Britain in doing so is proof the two go hand-in-hand. We are delivering both security for working people in an uncertain world and good jobs, putting more money in people’s pockets.”
In a statement, Healey said the UK’s defence industry would become an “engine for economic growth” and “boost skilled jobs in every nation and region”.
“The hard-fought lessons from [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine show a military is only as strong as the industry that stands behind them,” he added. “We are strengthening the UK’s industrial base to better deter our adversaries and make the UK secure at home and strong abroad.”
The Tories, however, said it was hard to believe Labour was prepared for “always on” munitions production when procurement had been “largely switched off for the past year”.
“We welcome investment in new munitions factories, but we don’t know when they will be ready, only that these orders should have been placed months ago,” Cartlidge added.
“Rachel Reeves has deliberately used the SDR to put an effective freeze on new orders for the kit our military needs,” he said.
Senior Western military chiefs have long been warning the UK would quickly run out of ammunition in the event of a war.
In 2021, the former head of the US Army in Europe, Gen Ben Hodges, told MPs in a simulated wargame most of the British Army’s inventory was exhausted after just eight days.
The former head of the British Army, Gen Sir Patrick Sanders, has also been calling for the UK to boost weapons production.
He recently said the Army’s diminished stocks of artillery rounds and missiles “would put hairs on the back of your neck”.
The UK has now significantly increased production of artillery shells.
New contracts have been signed to produce more complex weapons, such as next generation light anti-tank weapons (NLAW) and long-range Storm Shadow (also known as Scalp) cruise missiles.
Both have been supplied to Ukraine but production rates have, in the past, been slow. Exact numbers are not made public.
With the war in Ukraine, global demand for explosives and propellants has also been high.
The UK has often had to source materials from abroad.
BATTLESPACE Comment: Sources suggest that one of the plants being renovated is a former Royal Navy Depot in South Wales. Leidos appears to be the managing partner for this project with the MoD to onshore key munitions such as .338 Lapua which come from Switzerland .50 cal which comes from CBC in Brazil a new 6.5 ammo plant for the Royal Marines rifle, modular charges from Hanwha now made in RoK and a new propellant plant and energetics.