The factory floor at BAE Systems’ manufacturing site in Washington, northeast England.
Photographer: Lorna MacKay/BloombergUK Confronts Hard Reality of Rebuilding Its Military Prowess
Years of underinvestment, botched contracts and poor recruitment have hollowed out what was once a superpower.
Britain’s ammunition production begins life in the ancestral town of George Washington. Hundreds of technicians and robots work around the clock to manufacture the empty shells that are then filled with explosives and fired from a range of artillery systems.
The BAE Systems Plc plant in northeast England is operating 24/7 for the first time since the invasion of Iraq more than two decades ago. But the urgency of replenishing stocks of basic ordnance betrays just how far Britain’s defense capabilities have fallen, and the scale of the task to restore them.