BAE Systems ready to help Ukraine build spare parts for light artillery within ‘months’

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BAE Systems could be helping local partners in Ukraine produce spare parts for its light artillery within “months”, its chief executive has said, as western defence contractors consider setting up manufacturing facilities in the country.

Europe’s biggest defence contractor announced last week it had set up a legal entity in Ukraine and was exploring potential local partners after a meeting between chief executive Charles Woodburn and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

BAE already makes much of the equipment and weapons donated by western governments to Ukraine’s armed forces, including the M109 self-propelled howitzers, the M777 artillery piece and the truck-mounted Archer system, which it manufactures in Sweden.

Woodburn said the Ukrainians already have an industrial base but they are “keen to put themselves on to a bit more of a path to self-sufficiency”.

The country had historically built Soviet-era equipment but wanted to “move that towards making Nato-standard equipment”, Woodburn said at a Royal United Services Institute event on Thursday.

The manufacture of spare parts for BAE’s 105mm light gun being used in the war by Ukrainians using the country’s domestic facilities could be done “in months from here”, he said, the first time the company has mentioned a timeframe.

Production of the light gun is seen as a potential precursor for other more complex weapons, but a decision on whether and when to establish a local factory would take time, according to BAE.

The UK company is not the only western defence company deepening its ties in Ukraine amid signs that the war will drag on. German tank manufacturer Rheinmetall announced in May that it had formed a “strategic partnership” with Kyiv-owned defence contractor Ukroboronprom.

The joint venture’s initial focus will be on repairing military vehicles — both Leopards and Panthers donated by the west as well as old Soviet models — returned from the front line. An unspecified “later phase” will include making “select Rheinmetall products”, it said at the time.

The head of Rheinmetall’s land systems division, Björn Bernhard, told German public broadcaster NDR in August that it had already sent its first employees to Ukraine, kick-starting the partnership. Bernhard confirmed that the final goal of the collaboration was for Rheinmetall to build a plant in Ukraine, adding that this “focus” was likely to come after the war.

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The Swedish government recently agreed with Ukraine to look at potential co-operation over time on the servicing and production of CV90 armoured vehicles which are made by BAE’s Swedish venture.

Western contractors’ interest in Ukraine is not without risks. BAE’s decision to set up a base in the country triggered a robust response from Russia, with the Kremlin warning that the deployment of weapons production facilities “will certainly not contribute to defusing tensions and resolving the conflict”.

“Of course, any weapons production facilities, especially if these weapons are fired at us, they become an object of special attention for our military,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov last week.