On Friday, the company said the new Sheffield factory would “support the UK Government’s ambitions to sustain and revitalise vital UK artillery capabilities”.
The defence sector has been highlighted by the Government as one of several key areas of manufacturing that ministers want to support domestically in their forthcoming industrial strategy.
John Borton, managing director of BAE’s UK weapons systems business, said: “Our aim is to deliver long-term artillery capabilities for the UK, which will safeguard, sustain and grow a critical, specialised British industrial capability as well as provide important opportunities for exports.
“As we continue to grow our business to meet our customers’ evolving requirements, this significant investment will help us develop a highly skilled and adaptable workforce as an important part of the national defence infrastructure.”
It is the latest boost to Britain’s defence industry, which has benefitted from a rush of orders in the past two years as rising global tensions fuel more spending on defence.
This year alone, BAE said it has added £25bn of orders.
It has also struck deals with the Government to restock the UK’s ammunition supplies, including the 155mm shells used by the M777s, requiring an expansion of another BAE facility in North East England.
Mr Borton previously told The Telegraph that manufacturing of the M777 chassis would support “critical capabilities into the UK with regards to titanium fabrication”.
Describing the heavy use the guns were seeing in Ukraine, he added in January: “Everything has an engineering useful life attached to it, and because of the rate of usage we’re seeing actually we’re getting close to a point we haven’t seen before.”
BAE has previously said that as many as eight unnamed countries have expressed an interest in placing new orders for M777s following the announcement that production was due to restart.