Monmouthshire and Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire have been identified by the UK Government as potential sites for new munitions and energetics factories.
They are among at least 13 potential sites across the country, with construction expected to begin on the first in the next year.
The UK Government said the new factories would make munitions and military explosives to boost the UK’s warfighting readiness. At least 1,000 new jobs are expected to be created.
The Defence Secretary John Healey confirmed that the MOD has now funded a number of feasibility studies for the new energetics factories to kickstart high volume energetics production at scale. The engineering design work on the first of these factories has been commissioned with a view to start production for UK Armed Forces and to enable continued support to Ukraine.
Potential sites include Grangemouth in Scotland, Teesside in Northeast England, and Milford Haven in Wales. The factories will produce the components essential for bolstering the UK’s weapons arsenal including propellants, explosives and pyrotechnics.
The 13 areas with sites under consideration are Monmouthshire, Pembrokeshire, Cumbria, Dumfriesshire, Ayrshire, Shropshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Essex, Worcestershire, Hampshire, Stirlingshire and Teesside.
John Healey MP said:
“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.”
In the Strategic Defence Review published in June, MOD committed £1.5 billion of additional defence investment for energetics and munitions including the ‘always on munitions’ pipeline. The UK Government said it was committed to building at least six new munitions and energetics factories this parliament, creating at least 1,000 new jobs and “driving defence as an engine for growth in every region and nation”.
The MOD’s requirements for energetics production have been published online in a Planned Procurement Note (PNN) which sets out the its plan to deliver a set of multi-year investments to support onshore production and generate growth in the UK. The document includes details of nine energetic materials which have been identified as key for the UK.
Defence Secretary John Healey also said two new drone factories will open in the UK this week. He opened Helsing’s new ‘resilience factory’ in Plymouth, and Minister for the Armed Forces Alistair Carns is set to travel to Swindon to open STARK’s cutting edge drone production line.
