Rheinmetall’s new Telford facility will manufacture barrels for the Challenger 3 tank and RCH 155 artillery system, as defence chiefs warn that Britain must build industrial capacity before conflict erupts.

Britain has reopened large-calibre gun barrel production after a two-decade gap, with the launch of a £60mn factory in Telford marking a significant effort to rebuild the country’s defence manufacturing capabilities amid growing fears over the demands of a future European war.

The new Gun Hall, operated by German defence group Rheinmetall, is designed to produce 245 gun barrels and 50 breeches a year, ending Britain’s reliance on overseas suppliers for these critical components.

Defence Secretary Wes Streeting and General Sir Roly Walker, chief of the general staff, officially opened the 11,500-square-metre facility as the UK accelerates plans to prepare its armed forces for a potential future conflict, Forces News reported.

“Modern warfare consumes equipment and ammunition at extraordinary rates,” Walker told the audience, pointing to the tens of thousands of artillery shells fired daily by Russian and Ukrainian forces.

“Industrial capacity cannot be conjured in a crisis. It must be built before the conflict.”

‘We’ll be under someone else’s rule’: Former officer delivers terrifying warning over the lack of UK’s defences

UK braces for war as ministers admit gaps in tracking 95,000 former troops

Brits told ‘our nation is going to need you’ as Britain prepares for war and the ‘unthinkable’

‘Reservists first, then conscription’ as ex-army chief outlines potential UK draft for war

His remarks reflect one of the central lessons emerging from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine: advanced weapons and battlefield technology cannot compensate indefinitely for insufficient supplies of ammunition and replacement equipment. The conflict has shown that sustained combat places extraordinary demands on an army’s industrial base, requiring manufacturers to replenish weapons and components at a pace peacetime production systems may struggle to sustain.

Despite the rapid development of drones and other battlefield technologies, tanks and artillery remain central to modern warfare, providing the firepower needed to destroy enemy positions and support troops advancing on the ground.

The Telford factory is intended to help Britain maintain that capability without depending entirely on foreign suppliers for components essential to its heavy weapons.

The facility will manufacture barrels for two major British Army programmes: the RCH 155 self-propelled howitzer and the Challenger 3 main battle tank.

The army is acquiring 72 RCH 155 artillery systems to replace AS90 howitzers transferred to Ukraine. The factory will also produce 120mm smoothbore barrels for the Challenger 3, of which Britain is acquiring 148. The first vehicles are expected to enter initial service next year.

“Britain is back in the business of making the weapons that our Armed Forces need to defend the nation against our adversaries,” Streeting said.

“From an empty site to full production in eight months, this is rapid reindustrialisation in action.”

The factory’s rapid development is intended to show how quickly industrial capacity can be established when the government and defence contractors prioritise production. But the wider challenge is not simply opening facilities: it is ensuring that factories can maintain output, expand when required and supply the armed forces through a prolonged conflict.

Around 35 production staff will work at the Gun Hall, using Sheffield-forged steel to manufacture the barrels and breeches.

The work demands exceptional precision. Each eight-metre-long 155mm artillery barrel takes about 220 hours to produce, with operators honing the internal surfaces to tolerances of just 30 microns — roughly half the width of a human hair.

The factory will also manufacture breech blocks for the artillery system and tank gun. These components must withstand the extreme pressures generated when a weapon fires, making manufacturing quality critical to reliability and safety.

Gun barrels are consumable components, not permanent assets. Repeated firing gradually wears down their internal surfaces, eventually requiring replacement to maintain performance and safety.

According to Rheinmetall, an artillery barrel can typically fire about 2,500 rounds before it needs replacing, while smaller-calibre tank barrels last around 1,500 rounds.

In a prolonged war, those limits create ongoing demand for replacement barrels alongside the enormous quantities of ammunition needed to sustain operations.

Russia has sought to expand its own production of ammunition and military equipment since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In 2025, Russian factories produced or refurbished an estimated seven million artillery, mortar, tank and rocket munitions.

But the ability to manufacture ammunition does not automatically translate into the capacity to fire it. International sanctions and other industrial constraints have made it difficult for Russian factories to produce enough new barrels, according to the figures provided.

For Western governments, the implications extend beyond individual weapons’ performance. A military’s ability to sustain operations depends in part on whether its industrial suppliers can replace worn-out components quickly enough to keep equipment available for use.

That requirement has become more pressing as European governments reassess their defence capabilities in light of the war in Ukraine and the possibility of a wider conflict.

Rheinmetall says the Telford facility was designed to rapidly increase production if British forces are deployed to war.

Armin Papperger, the company’s chief executive, said the factory’s capacity could be expanded substantially when combined with production in Germany.

“If you see what we produce here, it’s a huge capacity,” he said.

“Together with the capacity we have in Germany, we’re able to produce 500, 600, even 1,000 barrels if we wanted to. If we went to 15 shifts a week, it would be possible.

“So there are huge capacities we could build up.”

The figures underline the distinction between a factory’s normal output and the industrial surge capacity that may be needed during a major conflict. Rheinmetall’s ability to increase production would depend on its workforce, operating schedules, and the wider manufacturing resources needed to support higher volumes.

The group employs 685 people in Telford and now operates four sites across the UK. The Gun Hall forms part of a broader £200mn investment the company has made in Britain over the past six years.

For the UK, the opening marks a return to domestic production of a component that is essential to its heavy weapons systems. For Rheinmetall, it expands the company’s manufacturing footprint in a country seeking to strengthen its defence industrial base.

The strategic test will be whether it can sustain and scale that capacity when it matters most. As the war in Ukraine has demonstrated, industrial resilience is not measured solely by the weapons a country possesses at the start of a conflict, but by its ability to keep them supplied, repaired and operational as the fighting continues.

Walker’s warning was direct: the capacity to sustain a war cannot be built overnight. Britain’s new Gun Hall is an attempt to ensure that, if the country faces such a test, the means to manufacture critical components will already be in place.