The speech made by Wes Streeting, the Secretary of State for Defence, in Telford on 22 October 2026.
Ladies and gentlemen, our dear friend, the German ambassador, Sean Davis, the local member of Parliament, who is Telford’s greatest champion on the national and international stage, it really is a huge privilege to be with you all to open the new UK Gun Hall today. Special thanks are due to Armin, to Rebecca, to everyone from Rheinmetall, not just for laying on this great event, but also for your long-standing investment in Britain and the jobs and communities which that investment supports.
I think the fact that we’ve got such an array of leaders and representatives from across government, industry and the military speaks to the critical importance of this new facility, and I want to start by sending every single word you heard about the importance of what we’re marking today.
As someone who loves our country’s history, it’s not lost on me that we’re a stone’s throw away from the birthplace of British industry, and a part of our country that’s synonymous with engineering and manufacturing.
So it feels especially fitting that we’re here to celebrate how we are renewing and reigniting that unique industrial strength. Today is a vote of confidence in our country, a statement of intent on our mission to reindustrialise Britain and create good, well-paid jobs across our country, and proof that we are rebuilding the capabilities of our armed forces.
And so what we’re opening the doors to here is more than a manufacturing plant. We’re opening the doors to something much greater and much more ambitious. And that is readiness and resilience. For the first time in decades, artillery gun barrels will be produced in Britain. They will be made using British steel from Forgemasters. As we’ve heard, their production will create one hundred jobs here and hundreds more across the supply chain right across the country.
Gun Hall will also support the next generation of equipment for the British Army, helping to deliver the firepower that will make us warfighting ready by 2030. And on top of all of this, this facility stands as a symbol of the deepening defence industrial relationship between the United Kingdom and our friends in Germany.
All of this adds up to a new era of hope and opportunity for this town, this region, and our country as we face up to a new era of threat and jeopardy.
As the Chief of the General Staff just said, we are making daily discoveries about the changing nature of the conflict in Ukraine. Yet, as was also pointed out, for all of the technological advances we’re seeing on the battlefield, what you might call more traditional weaponry still has its place in modern warfare.
But those armaments do not get produced by waving a magic wand. Nor in the event that this country finds itself in a war fighting state, can that capability and capacity in industry be conjured up.
To make sure we can deter and, if necessary, defeat, our adversaries, Britain must have the capacity to manufacture critical defence components at home and in sufficient quantities. We must have the capacity to increase production and replenish stockpiles when threats increase. We must have robust supply chains to back them up, and we must have the wider industrial resilience to sustain our armed forces through prolonged conflict.
Despite the advent of drones and data of AI and autonomy, it is not enough to simply out-innovate those who would wish us harm, though we must. We must also outproduce them too, because advantage increasingly belongs to those who can manufacture at scale and field capability fastest.
And that’s what Rheinmetall here in Telford will help us to achieve. Here is also where our ambition to turn defence investment into jobs, skills and growth in every postcode becomes reality. The threat environment requires us to deliver the biggest sustained increase in defence investment since the end of the Cold War.
And I’m acutely aware that investment in defence comes with trade-offs and choices in other areas of government spending, and at a cost to the taxpayer. So investment in defence will only command lasting public support if people can see not only how that investment strengthens our national defence, but also if they can see how it improves their lives, how it makes sure that we have a Britain that is worth fighting for.
That means bringing opportunity to every corner of the country. Almost seventy percent of defence investment is already spent outside London and the South East, and we’re setting out shortly how people and communities in every nation and region of the UK will feel benefits and do feel benefits from the defence dividend.
Here in the West Midlands, the defence economy is worth £1.8 billion and directly support around 8,000 jobs, with Rheinmetall at the forefront. Defence can also help us to tackle the moral emergency of more than a million young people out of work or education or training.
So it’s not just about spending more, although spending more is necessary. Every pound we invest in defence should be judged by what it does for Britain. Does it strengthen our industrial base? Does it push the frontier of innovation? Does it create skilled work, especially for young people? Over the next decade, this facility will emphatically answer yes to all those questions.
And as it does, it will inject more than £400 million into the UK economy. That’s precisely what I mean when I say that the Ministry of Defence can also be a ministry for growth and a ministry for opportunity, not simply spending more, but investing more wisely, backing the people, places and businesses that strengthen our national security and drive our national renewal.
Every country across the NATO alliance faces similar challenges in the headwinds of rising threats and tighter finances. As we confront that reality, we need to avoid healthy competition becoming self-defeating rivalry and protectionism.
And this factory is a reminder that stronger domestic industries and deeper allied integration are not contradictory. Done right, each strengthens the other.
On so many fronts. UK and German interests align – nowhere more so than when it comes to our defence and security. We are the two biggest economies in Europe, the two biggest investors in defence, so it makes sense that we should come together in common purpose. Our partnership matters not as an end in itself, but because of what it allows our countries to deliver together.
The defining test is not where every single component of a piece of kit or equipment was made. It is whether our combined industrial base can give our armed forces what they need, when they need it, because an alliance that can mobilise its armies must also be able to mobilise its industries.
This has Armin alluded to, is what lies behind the Trinity House agreement that deepens defence cooperation between our two countries. By working as one, we can build manufacturing capability home so that we can deliver faster and ultimately strengthen NATO, which is in all our interests.
In this new age of insecurity, we need to spend more and better, and we are. We need to prepare more, and we are, with better training and more kit and equipment in the hands of our armed forces. And we need to produce more, and we are. We are right here in a region rich in industrial heritage, honouring its past by investing in its future. The threats we face are real, and they are closer to home. We need to step up and together we are.
So thank you very much for being here and for the amazing work that’s gone into this incredible facility. Thank you.