Joint industrial cooperation with Britain is no longer aspirational, it’s essential for Canadian sovereignty and wartime readiness.
While drones dominate headlines as the future of warfare, artillery remains the enduring king of battle.
According to some estimates, 80% of all casualties in Russia’s war against Ukraine have been caused by artillery. Unlike drones or other sophisticated munitions, artillery cannot be electronically jammed or shot down.
Artillery thus remains essential to both present and future warfare. In an era of American isolation and a heightened risk of global conflict, domestic artillery production is essential for national sovereignty.
This must be a Canadian priority. Assumptions of enduring U.S. support are no longer strategically prudent, and we face escalating challenges to our security, particularly in the North, from both Russia and China. Canada’s artillery shell production capacity has risen from 3,000 to 5,000 per month, an improvement, but still far short of what would be required in wartime. Closing this gap must become a core priority of national defence policy.
To achieve this, we should emulate the approach taken by BAE Systems in the U.K. The company announced that its ‘innovative new approaches in the production of energetics and propellants,’ combined with previous investments since 2022, will enable a sixteen-fold increase in 155mm artillery shell output.
By leveraging continuous flow processing, BAE bypasses bottlenecks such as nitrocellulose shortages, enabling scalable and cost-effective production.
It should be noted that BAE has achieved this with relatively modest investments, including £150 million in munitions facilities and £8.5 million in the above-mentioned continuous flow processing method.
These innovations provide a compelling model, not just for technological emulation, but for strategic industrial alignment with trusted allies.
A Model for Sovereign Industrial Cooperation
As noted in my column supporting CANZUK, there are benefits for Canada in forming deeper partnerships with top UK defence firms.
BAE Systems’ advances in artillery shell production crystallize those benefits. Ottawa should prioritize a joint production agreement with BAE Systems, backed by targeted federal investment and expedited regulatory approvals.
If we wish to address our artillery production shortfall while still reducing our reliance on the United States, working with BAE Systems is a wise move.
In an era when munitions are the new measure of sovereignty, Canada must act with urgency, not to mimic our allies, but to internalize and operationalize their breakthroughs as part of our strategic posture.
Spencer Fernando
Image – YouTube
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