The Government’s Strategic Defence Review, published last month, makes several mentions of the country’s need to do something about its “inadequate” stockpiles of munitions, which have taken a major hit due to the way shells, drones, and missiles are being used up on the frontline in Ukraine. The review stresses the need for Britain to adopt an “always on” approach to munitions production, laying the foundations for “an uplift” in stockpiles “to meet the demand of high-tempo warfare”.
“It’s the main bottleneck in terms of shell and missile production,” says a UK weapons industry insider. “Obviously there are demands on metals and other things that go into shell and drone production. But they are essentially useless if there is no explosive payload.”
Munitions produced at a French factory revitalised by the conflict in Ukraine, as demand for 155mm shells outstrips available supply (Photo: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP)Compare NATO’s TNT output capacity to Russia’s annual 50,000 tonnes, then consider that Russia can also buy from India and China, and you start to see the scale of the problem facing British and Western arms manufacturers – and security officials.
How the peace dividend stopped TNT production
“During the ‘peace dividend’ Britain and our allies assumed we would not see a return to conventional land war, [that] led to assumptions it was safe to shut down all sorts of defence-related manufacturing,” says Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a weapons expert and former Colonel in the British Army.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon (Photo: Rosie Margesson)The sheer demand for conventional artillery has led to the approval of new TNT plants to open in a number of European countries. However, they will not be in a position to make the explosive for a few years yet.
“Once we are up and running, we will produce around 4,500 tonnes a year. So if we want to compete with Russia’s output, there needs to be more companies like ours across NATO, ideally in Europe,” Sjöblom adds.
Politicians ‘would rather show off’ Apache helicopters, says Nato official who wants them to get ‘back to basics’ (Photo: Petty Officer Joel Rouse/UK MOD Crown copyright)
The obvious demand for TNT now and in the coming years makes it all the more perplexing that there is so little effort from governments to make it themselves or work with allies to build plants as part of a NATO-wide push. But there appear to be few in government – in Britain and abroad – who know very much about the TNT demand shortages.
Even a ceasefire will require TNT
And that demand is unlikely to drop, even if all the current wars were to stop tomorrow.
While it’s no surprise that the chief executive of a company building a TNT plant would say this, the sentiment is shared by security officials across NATO. They fear that once again, we are watching Russia and China build a competitive advantage. Meanwhile, Europe’s only operational factory is giving half its output to America, a state that might be on the verge of abandoning us.
The Ministry of Defence pointed to its announcement of six new munitions factories – which would produce explosives. But when Defence Secretary John Healey was questioned about the plans earlier this month he was unable to say when work would start.
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