Midlands sites earmarked for future defence factories

Sites in Shropshire, Worcestershire and Derbyshire are on a Government shortlist of over a dozen sites for potential “munitions factories of the future”, set to be announced in parliament today.

Defence secretary John Healey says the government is committed to building at least six new explosives, or energetics, factories this parliament – part of a £1.5bn plan to boost the UK’s warfighting readiness with an “always on” munitions pipeline.

The Ministry Of Defence has funded a number of feasibility studies for the new factories, which it says will kickstart high volume energetics production at scale for the first time in nearly two decades.

In his announcement today, Healey says three counties in the Midlands are being considered for new facilities as part of the plan – including Shropshire, where an existing defence industry hub – currently home to the Challenger 3 tank programme and a gun barrel manufacturing site – is a potential location.

The MOD’s requirements will be published online today in a “Planned Procurement Note” which sets out a set of multi-year investments to support onshore production in the UK.

The government will now invite the industry to submit proposals which meet the its requirements on the back of today’s announcement.

“For too long our proud industrial heartlands saw jobs go away and not come back. We are changing that. Bringing new hope. This is a fundamental shift from the failed approach of the past,” said John Healey MP.

“This is a new era of threat, but the opportunity of this new era is a defence dividend from our record investment, measured in good jobs, thriving businesses, new skills for the British people.

“We are making defence an engine for growth, unambiguously backing British jobs and British skills as we make the UK better ready to fight and better able to deter future conflicts. This is the path that delivers national and economic security.”