The UK will mass-manufacture explosives as the Government reacts to calls to end its reliance on the US military.
The Defence Ministry has outlined 13 new sites across Britain which will house potential munitions and “energetics” factories.
High explosives, rocket propellants and ignition systems will all be produced in Britain for use on the front line, according to The Times.
Defence Secretary John Healey is due to announce the plan in a speech in Westminster on Wednesday morning.
Details of the move were shared on the day Parliament’s defence committee informed about Britain’s inability to defend itself from attacks.
It warned it was due to years of underinvestment in defence and the UK depending on US firepower, hardware and intelligence.
The cross-party group of MPs urged the Government, in a new report, that it should replace American military systems used by British forces.
The group said it was “highly likely” the US will withdraw personnel and equipment from Europe as a result of Donald Trump’s “shifting priorities”.
Defence Secretary John Healey will make the announcement in Parliament
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REUTERSThey said it would leave Nato allies “vulnerable”.
Mr Healey is expected to mention on Wednesday that the new facilities would boost the UK’s readiness for war.
He is also believed to say the UK will not return to the “hollowed out and underfunded” military of the past.
The defence industry has been asked to submit proposals to produce the explosives in what Mr Healey has described as “the factories of the future”.
Sir Keir Starmer is shown an anechoic chamber during a visit to Leonardo, one of the biggest suppliers of defence and security equipment to the UK MOD
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ReutersThe Ministry of Defence indicates the first of the sites is expected to be running in the next year.
The department said it will bolster British and Ukrainian arsenals.
Successful defence firms must adhere to specific Government requirements and will be asked to produce nine energetic materials that release high amounts of chemical energy.
It has been identified as an important part of UK resilience.
The counties which could be home to the facilities include Cumbria, Shropshire, Dumfriesshire, Ayrshire, Essex, Worcestershire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Hampshire, Pembrokeshire, and Stirlingshire.
Mr Healey will say in his announcement that “for too long our proud industrial heartlands saw jobs go away and not come back”.
“This is a fundamental shift from the failed approach of the past,” he is expected to add.
In April, the Times revealed the UK will increase it ability to produce RDX explosives – which are used in 155mm rounds for guns and other weapons used in the British Army.
Shipping containers are being used at defence facilities across Britain.
It is so the UK no longer needs to rely on the US and France for the Nato-standard artillery ammunition.
Mr Trump warned European countries earlier this year that they need to take more responsibility for their own security.
It comes as the White House wants to focus on its own homeland and the Indo-Pacific region.
An MoD spokesman said the Defence Secretary’s plans to strengthen the “UK’s war fighting readiness” will keep Britain more secure “at home and strong abroad”.
