Britain just restored its own gun barrel factory and rearmament just got real
Wes Streeting just opened a factory that builds gun barrels for the British Army.
It happened a day ago, in Telford, Shropshire.
So why does this matter? Because Britain has not made large-calibre gun barrels on its own soil in about twenty years. Now it does again.
The factory is called the Gun Hall. It's run by Rheinmetall, a German defence company.
It makes 120mm and 155mm weapon systems. Those go into the Challenger 3 tank. And into new artillery, including the RCH 155 howitzer.
At full capacity, this one site can turn out 245 barrels a year. Plus more than 50 breeches.
Wes Streeting says quote "Britain is back in the business of making the weapons".
That's the Defence Secretary saying this is about fighting wars, not just creating jobs.
So how fast did this get built?
Eight months ago, the site was empty. Nothing there at all.
Rheinmetall put in the equipment. Trained the workforce. Got production moving on time. Breech production started in May. Barrel production followed in June.
Armin Papperger is the CEO of Rheinmetall AG. He co-hosted the opening with Wes Streeting. He says quote "we have turned our commitment into a sovereign manufacturing capability".
That's the man running the company calling this a permanent British capability, not a one-off order.
General Sir Roly Walker, the Chief of the General Staff, was there too.
The Gun Hall covers 11,500 square metres. Right now it employs 35 people. Rheinmetall expects more than 100 skilled jobs there as production builds up.
And Rheinmetall already employs around 685 people in Telford in total.
The company says it has put more than £200 million into its UK operations. Rheinmetall and one independent report say that covers the past five years. One other report says six years. Either way, this is not a one-off plant. Years of investment just landed at once.
And here's the twist. This German company wants to use British steel.
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