Britain weighs how to rebuild war-depleted reserves in Ukraine

LONDON — Britain’s Defense Ministry is expected next week to lay out what the armed forces will look like in the future in a new review aimed at reshaping the military.

Among the long list of things to be addressed in the report, known as a command document, is a plan to address shortages in weapons stocks, according to James Heappey, the minister for the armed forces.

“Reserves are to help you get through the first phase of a war. No one has hidden that the reserves we have are insufficient. Maybe there will be a booking announcement in the (Commando) newspaper next week,” Heappey told the audience at the Global Air & Space Chiefs conference in London on July 13.

The low stockpiles of weapons held by the British military have been exposed by London’s support of Ukraine with substantial supplies of missiles, ammunition and other weapons since the war began last year.

The UK has sent 100,000 unspecified artillery shells to Ukraine in 2022, plus more than 300,000 so far this year.

The bulk of these were 155mm rounds, but it is likely that 105mm artillery shells were supplied as well.

The stock level problem has raised questions here not only about spending levels to replenish war stocks, but also how to maintain defense industrial capacity to meet the demands of the armed forces.

“Reserves are only half of the equation,” Heappey said. “You have to have the broadest defense industrial base or civilian industrial capacity that can be reused because the reserves are supposed to last you until such time as your production equals your consumption in the war.”

How to meet the requirements is a question not only for the Defense Ministry but also for the government at large, he added.

“When you’re in a post-industrial, largely service economy, it’s quite a challenge. It doesn’t mean you necessarily have to regrow the local industry, but you have to rethink very carefully,” he told an audience of senior air force officers and industry executives.

The Ministry of Defense and the industry have already started down that path.

On July 11, munitions maker BAE Systems announced that it had sealed a deal with the Ministry of Defense to start rebuilding British Army stocks with the supply of artillery shells and other munitions in a deal that could eventually be worth £400. millions.

BAE Systems said the deal will significantly increase production of 155mm, 30mm medium caliber rounds and 5.56mm small arms ammunition at facilities in north England and south Wales.

The industrial expansion includes a new machining line for 155mm projectiles, a new explosives-filling factory, and the restart of a 30mm manufacturing capacity.

Thales UK is already benefiting from a stock rebuild deal signed last December with its factory in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which replaces the British Army’s NLAW anti-tank missiles delivered to the Ukrainian army.

But the British are not just considering how they can retain sovereign capabilities in the sector.

Heappey indicated that the British are seeking partnerships with other nations to maintain production capacities.

“Who are your friends? How defensible are the sea and air routes to bring those things from the point of manufacture to the UK?” he asked.

Heappy said it is “inevitably necessary to look at the size of your reserves and also how quickly you can scale the industry to meet the challenge of a national war.”