Rheinmetall wins major contract to build British Army RCH 155 howitzer guns in Telford.

On July 31, 2026, Rheinmetall secured a low three-digit million-euro contract to manufacture complete 155 mm L/52 remote-controlled weapon assemblies in Telford for the British Army’s 72 RCH 155 wheeled self-propelled howitzers. Awarded in the second quarter of 2026 under the United Kingdom’s Mobile Fires Platform acquisition via OCCAR and ARTEC GmbH, the agreement assigns serial production of the elevating masses, barrels, breeches, recoil systems, and trunnions to Rheinmetall’s new UK facility. The contract establishes domestic manufacturing capacity to replace 68 AS90 tracked howitzers transferred to Ukraine while synchronizing deliveries from May 2028 through June 2031 with joint British-German qualification standards.

The contract covers 72 elevating masses, onboard maintenance tooling, technical documentation, and non-recurring engineering to transition the Telford plant into a serial-production site for complete 155 mm gun assemblies. Integrated onto Boxer 8×8 drive modules with two-person crews, the automated RCH 155 delivers firing rates exceeding eight rounds per minute and operational ranges spanning 30 km to 70 km depending on projectile configuration.

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The RCH 155 combines the GTK Boxer 8×8 drive module with an unmanned Artillery Gun Module developed from the 155 mm L/52 weapon system used by the Panzerhaubitze 2000. (Picture source: KNDS)

On July 31, 2026, Rheinmetall received a contract to manufacture the complete 155 mm L/52 remote-controlled weapon assemblies for the British Army’s 72 RCH 155 wheeled self-propelled howitzers, with serial production assigned to its new large-calibre gun facility in Telford. The supply contract was awarded during the second quarter of 2026, carries a value in the low three-digit million-euro range and supports the United Kingdom’s nearly £1 billion Mobile Fires Platform acquisition signed with ARTEC GmbH through OCCAR in May 2026. Rheinmetall will deliver the artillery module’s principal firing components, including the barrel, breech, recoil system, trunnions and 72 elevating masses, together with onboard tools, technical publications, training material and non-recurring engineering work.

Deliveries are scheduled from May 2028 to June 2031, in step with British vehicle assembly and the planned introduction of the RCH 155 into Army service. The contract converts Telford from a new industrial investment into a serial-production site for complete 155 mm gun assemblies, expanding British capacity beyond ammunition and isolated barrel work into the manufacture of integrated artillery weapon systems. The core of Rheinmetall’s workshare is the elevating mass, the integrated structure that includes the 155 mm L/52 cannon, cradle, recoil mechanism, breech, trunnions and elevation equipment. This assembly carries the gun, absorbs the forces generated during firing, and transfers them into the Artillery Gun Module (AGM) and Boxer structure.

The vertical sliding-block breech must withstand repeated firing with modular charges, while the recoil system limits the load transmitted to the unmanned turret and the 8×8 chassis. The trunnions provide the pivot points through which the weapon moves between -2.5° and +65° elevation, and their alignment directly affects laying accuracy, barrel movement and recoil geometry. Rheinmetall will also provide the onboard tooling needed for inspection, adjustment and first-line maintenance, reducing reliance on depot-level support for routine interventions. The non-recurring engineering element covers production tooling, configuration management, qualification support, manufacturing processes and the documentation required to place a new national production line into service.

Delivery timing between May 2028 and June 2031 remains synchronized with Boxer drive-module production, turret integration, acceptance testing and crew training, rather than operating as an independent gun delivery schedule. The complete vehicle is supplied by ARTEC GmbH, the Rheinmetall-KNDS Deutschland joint venture that manages the Boxer family, while the British industrial workshare is divided between Telford, Stockport and Sheffield. Rheinmetall’s Telford site will manufacture the barrel, breech, recoil system and trunnions. KNDS UK will build the Boxer drive module in Stockport, including the chassis, armoured hull, engine and drivetrain, while Sheffield Forgemasters is expected to supply British steel and specialist forgings used in the gun production chain. The programme is expected to support at least 500 jobs, including 100 at Telford, 100 at Stockport and 300 across the wider supply base.

Britain and Germany are qualifying the same 155 mm L/52 RC weapon configuration, which allows both armies to share firing trials, recoil validation, ammunition certification, safety testing and parts of the software verification process. This industrial structure implements the Trinity House agreement signed in October 2024 by combining common qualification and interoperability with nationally distributed production. Britain therefore receives domestic work on the gun and drive module, while Germany retains a central role in system engineering, integration and programme governance through ARTEC and KNDS Deutschland. The RCH 155 combines the Boxer 8×8 drive module with an unmanned Artillery Gun Module (AGM) derived from the weapon system of the Panzerhaubitze 2000.

Its 155 mm/L52 cannon complies with NATO Joint Ballistics Memorandum of Understanding (JBMoU) requirements and can fire standard high-explosive rounds, base-bleed projectiles, extended-range ammunition and future precision-guided munitions within the limits of the approved ammunition matrix. The turret contains no crew stations. The two operators remain in the protected Boxer compartment, with one serving as driver and system operator and the other as commander and fire mission operator. The ammunition installation carries 30 fuzed projectiles and 144 modular propellant charges, equivalent to an average of 4.8 charge modules per projectile if the full load is distributed evenly, although actual charge selection varies by range and trajectory. Projectile loading, charge loading, gun laying, and fuze programming are automated.

Inductive fuze setting takes place during the loading cycle, removing the need for a crew member to handle and program each projectile manually before firing. This automation reduces the vehicle crew from the five soldiers normally associated with an AS90 to two. The weapon can fire more than eight rounds per minute and can sustain eight rounds per minute for a three-minute period, producing a short-duration output of up to 24 rounds before ammunition state, barrel temperature and resupply requirements become limiting factors. In a Multiple Round Simultaneous Impact (MRSI) mission, the fire control system can launch up to five projectiles at different elevations and with different propellant charges so that they arrive within a two-second interval. The turret provides 360° traverse and can fire without hydraulic stabilizing spades, which removes the deployment and recovery time associated with conventional truck-mounted guns.

Standard DM111 or DM121 high-explosive projectiles have a range of up to 30 km, base-bleed ammunition reaches 40 km, and V-LAP projectiles reach 54 km. The approved growth path includes Vulcano ammunition at 70 km, rocket-assisted HE-LR ammunition at 80 km and ramjet-powered HE-ExR ammunition at 100 km. These figures should not be treated as interchangeable because each range depends on projectile type, charge, barrel wear, atmospheric conditions and the ammunition’s certification status. The practical effect is that the British Army’s routine high-explosive ammunition will remain concentrated in the 30 km to 54 km band, while the 70 km to 100 km envelope will depend on smaller stocks of more expensive guided or advanced projectiles. The fire control chain is built around an inertial navigation system, satellite positioning, automated ballistic calculation, muzzle velocity measurement and electrical gun laying.

Target coordinates can be transmitted from an artillery command system or entered manually, after which the computer calculates azimuth, elevation, charge selection, fuze setting and the interval between shots. The ballistic software uses the NATO Armaments Ballistic Kernel and incorporates the specific characteristics of the projectile, charge and gun combination rather than relying on a generic trajectory solution. A muzzle velocity radar measures the actual speed of each round as it leaves the barrel, allowing corrections for propellant temperature, ammunition-lot variation and progressive barrel wear. Inertial navigation provides the primary reference for position and gun orientation, while GPS or Galileo can update the solution when satellite signals remain available. This arrangement allows the RCH 155 to conduct a fire mission without surveying a fixed gun position in the traditional manner, but it also makes the vehicle dependent on the accuracy and integrity of its navigation, computing and sensor chain.

The open architecture allows integration with British command networks, but national radios, data formats, encryption and fire control procedures will still require separate integration and qualification. At less than 39 tonnes, the RCH 155 is 18.6 tonnes lighter than the 57.6-tonne Panzerhaubitze 2000 and remains within a weight class that permits long-distance road movement without routinely using heavy equipment transporters. Its MTU 8V199 engine develops up to 600 kW, or 815 hp, giving a power-to-weight ratio of 21 hp per tonne. Maximum road speed exceeds 100 km/h, and road range exceeds 700 km, compared with the lower road speed and heavier logistical footprint of tracked artillery. The vehicle can climb a 60 percent gradient, operate on a 30 percent side slope, cross a 2 m trench and ford 1.2 m of water without preparation.

The Boxer hull provides all-round protection against 14.5 mm armour-piercing ammunition and artillery fragments, with a higher frontal protection level under specified test conditions. Mine and improvised explosive device (IED) protection is provided through the armoured floor, while the crew compartment includes overpressure, nuclear, biological and chemical filtration, fire detection and suppression. The main mobility trade-off is terrain performance. The wheeled Boxer can self-deploy rapidly on roads and firm ground, but it will logically not match the cross-country traction of a tracked howitzer in deep mud, soft soil, heavily cratered ground or terrain where tyre damage and axle loading become limiting factors. For the British Army, the programme closes a force-structure gap created by the transfer of 68 AS90 tracked howitzers to Ukraine.

Britain acquired 14 Archer wheeled howitzers from Sweden as an interim force, which represents only 20.6 percent of the number of AS90s transferred and is insufficient to recreate the former fleet’s training, deployment and attrition capacity. The 72 RCH 155 order will exceed the number of donated AS90s by four vehicles, but fleet size alone does not restore the capability. The Army must create trained two-person crews, instructor cadres, maintainers, ammunition teams, recovery capacity, spare parts holdings and digital links to reconnaissance and command systems before a deployable artillery unit can be generated. First deliveries are planned in 2028, with minimum deployable capability required before the end of the decade and deliveries continuing until June 2031.

The onboard magazine of 30 rounds is half the 60-round capacity of the Panzerhaubitze 2000, making ammunition resupply frequency a central issue during sustained firing. A six-gun battery carrying only onboard ammunition would hold 180 rounds, enough for 3.75 minutes of firing at eight rounds per minute per gun if all six weapons maintained the maximum sustained rate. This means the operational value of the RCH 155 will depend as much on protected ammunition vehicles, rapid replenishment procedures and stock depth as on the howitzer’s firing rate. The Telford production line also supports a wider RCH 155 order base that includes 80 systems for Germany and 54 for Ukraine, bringing confirmed Boxer-based orders for those three users to 206 vehicles when the British order is included.

Germany has also approved a framework covering up to 500 systems, leaving room for 420 additional vehicles beyond its initial 80 if later funding and export decisions are approved. Sustaining that production volume requires more than final assembly capacity. Each gun depends on specialist steel, large forgings, deep-hole barrel machining, heat treatment, autofrettage, surface treatment, recoil system manufacture, breech production, proof firing and dimensional inspection. Barrel output is particularly important because artillery barrels are wear items whose service life decreases under high-charge firing and sustained firing schedules.

Telford therefore provides Britain with national capacity to produce and eventually replace key gun components, but the RCH 155 will remain dependent on a multinational supply chain for Boxer components, turret integration, electronics, ammunition and system qualification. The British acquisition consequently serves three measurable purposes: replacing 68 transferred AS90s with 72 new vehicles, creating a domestic production line for complete 155 mm weapon assemblies, and linking the Army to a common British-German artillery configuration over the longer term.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.

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