Under the new Trinity House deal, Rheinmetall will build a factory in the UK to make barrels for artillery guns – something the UK stopped doing more than a decade ago.
A location for the plant has yet to be announced, but the Ministry of Defense (MO) says it will support more than 400 jobs and use British steel made by Sheffield Forgemasters.
The plant was recently purchased by the UK government. The first barrels of artillery guns are expected to roll off the assembly line in 2027.
The Trinity House deal also includes a commitment to develop a new long-range missile that the MoD says will be more accurate and can be launched further than any current systems – Britain’s Storm Shadow and Germany’s Taurus. Unlike Great Britain, Germany has refused to supply Ukraine with its Taurus cruise missile.
Britain and Germany will continue to collaborate on the development of drones that could fly alongside the Typhoon jets operated by both countries.
The German P8 maritime surveillance aircraft will operate periodically from the Naval Air Station Lossiemouth in Scotland to help patrol the North Atlantic. Other NATO allies have been doing the same for a number of years.
There is also a promise to strengthen the defense of NATO’s eastern flank; Britain and Germany have already sent hundreds of troops to the Baltic states as part of plans to boost NATO defenses after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said the agreement would strengthen Europe and NATO.
“We must not take security in Europe for granted,” he said, adding that the projects being implemented would be open to other partners.
