LONDON, February 16. /TASS/. The launch of a factory to produce artillery shells to replenish shortages in the UK armed forces and send them to Ukraine has been delayed for six months, The Guardian reported.
According to the newspaper, the plant is located in Glascoed, a town in South Wales. Authorities hope the plant will increase the UK's production of 155mm shells sixteenfold. The factory was supposed to start operating last summer, but this did not happen.
The UK's BAE Systems defense company, which owns the factory, explained that the delay was due to a decision made during construction to double the plant's production capacity. The company also assured that the fully automated Glascoed factory is structurally complete and is currently undergoing "testing." "After construction began, we took the strategic decision to double the output capacity beyond our original design to increase our 155mm production capacity by up to sixteenfold, which had an impact on the schedule," a BAE Systems spokesperson told the newspaper.
The Guardian noted that the company previously produced between 3,000 and 5,000 shells of this caliber per year. Even with the promised increase in capacity, this means that the UK will produce no more than 80,000 shells annually. For comparison, the newspaper noted that Rheinmetall's new plant in Germany, launched last year, is expected to reach an annual production of 1.1 million shells by 2027.