Overview

Context

The conflict in Ukraine has demonstrated two things in relation to artillery;

  • 155mm artillery is the only major legacy weapons system that has emerged from the Ukraine war with its relevance maintained or enhanced on a battlefield increasingly dominated by drones.

  • The scale at which modern high-intensity warfare consumes artillery ammunition, particularly 155mm systems, has exposed structural weaknesses across UK, NATO and allied supply chains, including limited surge capacity, fragmented production using outdated manufacturing techniques, the erosion of onshore energetics and specialist steel manufacturing capability.

Reconstitution of stocks at scale requires not only shell bodies, but a fully integrated product set including fuzes, propellent systems, energetic fills, and the industrial base to support them.  Addressing this challenge demands manufacturing approaches that are scalable, reliable, economically viable across variable demand profiles, and resilient to geopolitical disruption.

The Coventry Arsenal Ltd

The Coventry Arsenal Ltd was established in April 2025 as a products company to develop a vertically integrated, UK-based capability to manufacture 155mm ammunition including shell bodies, fuzes, propellant and explosives at scale for the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) as well as other NATO, and allied countries at a ‘should cost’ price.

The Coventry Ordnance Works Ltd

In 1905 the British government encouraged the creation of ‘The Coventry Ordnance Works’ (COW), by a consortium of John Brown, Cammell Laird, and Fairfield, with the specific goal of breaking the the duopoly of Vickers and Armstrong-Whitworth, driving down prices on armaments, particularly naval guns and mountings. The two incumbents were notorious for conspiring to keep prices high (e.g., armour plate prices were 40% higher in Britain than in the US). Despite efforts of this well resourced duopoly to exclude them, The Coventry Ordnance Works secured a significant portion of the naval artillery programs and, along with government-run factories, helped force competitive pricing.

The Coventry Arsenal Limited was set up to secure supplies of reliable, high quality 155mm artillery rounds at a price that the current monopoly supplier with their legacy technology and culture cannot compete with.  As Mark Twain observed, “History doesn’t repeat….but it often rhymes.”