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 the UK’s defence and deterrence is being bolstered with thousands of long-range weapons and a new £1.5 billion 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 £6 billion 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:

• £1.5 billion 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.

The 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.”

Andy Start, UK National Armaments Director, said:

“There’s an absolute recognition within the SDR that we can only fight and sustain through a conflict if we are fully integrated with our industrial base, both here and overseas. To make all of that happen under defence reform, we are reorganizing and re-brigading ourselves to make sure that we’re easier to deal with for each of the segments of industry that we operate.

“The SDR speaks to the fact that we’ll segment the market into those large, long term strategic relationships with the critical players who are unique in terms of their ability to deliver big systems, such as ships, aircraft, and in the case of defence, nuclear submarines.

“It talks about the middle layer of spiral development, where we’re looking to pull in relationships with dual use technology providers that can be innovative and give us modular upgrades and spiral development to our systems that can make us much more lethal, much more quickly, at lower cost.

“We’ve done that effectively with Ukraine. We’re looking to take that approach and spread it throughout delivering capability for UK defence.

“So, a really exciting time to transform what is already a really vibrant and effective industrial sector and see it grow as the defence market grows dramatically around the world.”

Lt Gen Simon Hamilton, DE&S Deputy CEO, said:

“In today’s world, with the increased threat and volatility in Europe and the Middle East, Defence needs to be able to move fast, to deliver battle-winning capabilities to our armed forces in a more agile and responsive way than ever before.

“The SDR is the blueprint that set outs the path for achieving this. It sets out the vision and direction for the future of UK Defence. It outlines what Defence must do to deter our adversaries. For DE&S that means delivering and supporting the right equipment so our soldiers, sailors, aviators, Royal Marines and allies can remain a potent force at the forefront of global safety and security.”