Procurement of 72 Remote Controlled Howitzers (RCH 155)\u00a0for\u00a0the British Army will deliver a step change in artillery capability.
\n The UK\u2019s \u00a31 billion\u00a0investment\u00a0delivers on the UK-Germany Trinity House\u00a0Agreement, and\u00a0supports\u00a0at least\u00a0500\u00a0British\u00a0jobs, including at Rheinmetall\u2019s Telford facility and KNDS Stockport.
\n Rheinmetall set\u00a0to use British steel\u00a0through Sheffield\u00a0Forgemasters, strengthening the UK\u2019s defence industrial base\u00a0and supporting the UK Steel Strategy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
72 Remote Controlled Howitzers (RCH 155)\u00a0will be\u00a0procured\u00a0under a nearly\u00a0\u00a31 billion\u00a0contract, which includes initial training and in-service support, awarded by the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR) on behalf of the British Army to ARTEC GmbH, a joint venture between KNDS and Rheinmetall.<\/p>\n
The weapon systems\u00a0\u2013\u00a0the barrel,\u00a0breech, recoil system and trunnions\u00a0\u2013\u00a0will\u00a0be manufactured at Rheinmetall\u2019s large-calibre production Telford\u00a0facility.\u00a0Rheinmetall\u00a0is set to\u00a0use British steel supplied by Sheffield\u00a0Forgemasters,\u00a0supporting the\u00a0UK Steel Strategy which\u00a0recognises\u00a0steel is\u00a0fundamental to the UK\u2019s industry and national resilience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0BOXER drive module \u2013 chassis, engine, drive train \u2013 that the weapon system sits on will be manufactured by KNDS UK in Stockport, sustaining critical armoured steel welding in Britain as well as supporting 100 skilled jobs in Stockport. Together, the programme is expected to support the creation of 100 new skilled jobs at Rheinmetall\u2019s Telford facility, support 100 jobs at KNDS Stockport and back 300 jobs in the wider UK supply chain.<\/p>\n
The programme delivers on the Trinity House Agreement\u00a0by strengthening UK-German collaboration\u00a0and deepening\u00a0interoperability between Allied forces.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Defence Secretary John Healey MP said:<\/p>\n
This major investment is defence delivering for the battlefield and for Britain\u2019s economy. By securing next-generation artillery with Germany, not only are we\u00a0rearming to strengthen\u00a0NATO\u00a0against growing Russian aggression\u00a0but also\u00a0creating\u00a0highly skilled jobs\u00a0here in Britain.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is what we mean when we say defence is an engine for growth \u2013 investment in our security that powers new jobs across the country.<\/p>\n
German Federal Minister of Defence, Boris Pistorius, said:<\/p>\n
The RCH 155 will significantly enhance the artillery\u2019s firepower, safety and flexibility. It is a vital element of modern artillery support. Together with the United Kingdom, we are demonstrating that we take interoperability within NATO seriously and are putting it into practice.<\/p>\n
At the same time, we are underlining the close defence cooperation between Germany and the UK. My British counterpart John Healey and I are keeping our word and are implementing the Trinity House Arrangement step by step. Joint exercises and training will bring our armed forces even closer together. This will deepen military cooperation in the long term and improve our operational readiness \u2013 for greater security in Europe.<\/p>\n
RCH 155 is mounted on a BOXER chassis and can redeploy at speeds of up to 100km\/h, making it harder for adversaries to target. Advanced automation of the turret allows the platform to be\u00a0operated\u00a0at the push of a button from the crew compartment by just two soldiers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
First deliveries of the RCH 155 vehicles are expected in 2028 to achieve a minimal deployable capability within this decade.\u00a0This contract follows the \u00a352 million Early Capability Demonstrator contract signed in December 2025 and a \u00a353 million Long Lead Item procurement contract earlier this year, facilitating Rheinmetall\u2019s large calibre gun manufacturing facility in Telford.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rheinmetall\u00a0aims to\u00a0use British steel supplied by Sheffield\u00a0Forgemasters, which manufactures specialist steel parts used in critical defence programmes and employs 720 skilled staff.\u00a0The\u00a0government invested over \u00a3420 million of\u00a0additional\u00a0funding in Sheffield\u00a0Forgemasters\u00a0last year,\u00a0bolstering sovereign steelmaking capability for\u00a0defence, including gun barrels and nuclear submarines.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The RCH 155 replaces the AS90 artillery systems granted in kind to Ukraine in 2023. The Archer artillery system currently serves as an interim capability and will continue to do so until the RCH 155 enters service.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The RCH 155 procurement between the UK and Germany builds on the Trinity House Agreement signed in October 2024. This commitment to improve and enhance bilateral defence cooperation between both nations will exploit the combined capabilities of each nation\u2019s test and evaluation centres, to enable faster delivery at less cost. It will deepen interoperability between Allied forces and directly strengthen NATO\u2019s collective defence on the eastern flank. It also anchors significant industrial benefit in Britain, supporting\u00a0the skilled workers who will build and\u00a0maintain\u00a0them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The investment\u00a0also\u00a0supports the Strategic Defence Review\u2019s ambition to make defence an engine for growth and the Army\u2019s goal to deliver tenfold greater lethality within the next decade.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Lt Gen Simon Hamilton CBE said:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Britain answered the call for aid by providing artillery systems to Ukraine at the outbreak of the war. We knew the risk \u2013 the gap in our warfighting capability \u2013 that this would present. The success of bringing the RCH 155 onto contract to develop our 155mm Close Support Artillery requirement,\u00a0in collaboration with Germany, marks the first significant milestone in replenishing this capability. We are grateful to the National Armaments Director, our industry\u00a0partners\u00a0and our own programme teams for the fantastic work which they have done to bring this to fruition\u00a0and look forward to our continued work with our German allies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Procurement of 72 Remote Controlled Howitzers (RCH 155)\u00a0for\u00a0the British Army will deliver a step change in artillery capability.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-582526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}