DSEI 2025: Ground virtually broken at Rheinmetall's UK Gun Hall in Telford

The virtual groundbreaking ceremony of the UK Gun Hall in Telford took place at DSEI 2025 on 11 September. (Rheinmetall)

Rheinmetall CEO and chairman Armin Papperger and UK Defence Secretary John Healey participated in the virtual groundbreaking ceremony of the UK Gun Hall in Telford during the third day of the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) 2025 exhibition held in London from 9 to 12 September. Papperger said the plant will manufacture 155 mm artillery barrels and 120 mm tank guns, with production expected to begin in 2026.

According to a 9 September Rheinmetall press release, “The UK Gun Hall will provide sovereign British capabilities, strengthen the nation's security, reinforce NATO readiness, and fuel a new era of British defence manufacturing.”

The plant is part of wider co-operation between the UK and Germany under the Trinity House Agreement signed in London on 23 October 2024 by Healey and German Federal Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius, which includes strengthening shared defence industrial capabilities.

Rheinmetall said that the UK Gun Hall would complement its weapons and munitions production facility in Unterlüß, Germany, “creating a resilient, transnational supply chain to support NATO and partner nations”.

“The UK Gun Hall will be central to the British Army's transformation under the [2 June] Strategic Defence Review, delivering the firepower and industrial resilience needed [for the service to increase its lethality tenfold] by 2030. It will directly support the Challenger 3 programme, Boxer production, and future artillery platforms, while also enhancing the UK's export potential.”

Papperger expected 80% of the plant's production to be exported.