Lieutenant General Simon Hamilton, Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) Director General Land Domain, has visited Sheffield Forgemasters to look at the company’s unique capabilities for gun barrel manufacture.
With overall responsibility for the UK Army’s Land Domain, overseeing numerous delivery programmes for UK Armed Forces – covering Land Equipment, Helicopters and Weapons, Lt Gen Hamilton saw how facilities at the company could restart artillery gun barrel manufacture in the UK after 20 years.
The Lt Gen was partnered by Mark Bunyan, DE&S Head Fires Infrastructure and Manoeuvre Support, and Major Sam Meadows, and used the visit to gain a better understanding of Sheffield Forgemasters’ existing manufacturing capability and future options that could support the Land Industrial Strategy.
Lieutenant General Simon Hamilton, said: “The visit provided real insight into a vital manufacturing facility that supports the Defence Nuclear Enterprise and a better understanding of manufacturing capabilities that could increase UK content resilience and prosperity in the Land Domain in the future.”
Sheffield Forgemasters has the only deep, vertical heat-treatment system in the UK, which is an essential capability for processing long gun barrels.
Gary Nutter, Chief Executive Officer at Sheffield Forgemasters, said: “We were honoured to host Lieutenant General Hamilton for a visit of our site, so that he could see at first hand how our many years of expertise and facilities that do not exist elsewhere in the UK, are key assets for UK gun barrels manufacture.
“There will be a certain amount of recommissioning to specific elements of the plant in order to restart gun barrels manufacture, but the opportunity to reinstate a sovereign capability for this type of manufacture is a great accolade for the city.”
Sheffield Forgemasters has a long history of providing armaments to the UK military, including cannon, artillery and naval guns, primarily through its Vickers predecessor and supporting both world wars, but has not manufactured gun barrels for more than 20 years.
