The UK Ministry of Defense is considering the purchase of 15 additional M270 multiple launch rocket systems.

According to the UK Defense Journal, there are also plans to purchase another armored recovery vehicle.

Currently, the country has 61 M270 MLRSs in service, as well as eight repair and recovery vehicles ordered from the United States.

In addition, the UK is investing £800 million over the next decade to purchase GMLRS precision-guided missiles and ER-GMLRS extended-range missiles.

The decision to expand the rocket artillery fleet is directly related to the experience of the war in Ukraine, where systems capable of using GMLRS missiles have demonstrated high efficiency.

As a reminder, since 2022, the UK Ministry of Defense has intensified the review and acceleration of its artillery renewal programs.

In this context, the country has taken two important steps: first, it received Archer wheeled self-propelled artillery systems from Sweden to replace the AS-90 artillery systems transferred to Ukraine; second, it has expedited the selection of Archer as a new artillery system to replace the AS-90.

Militarnyi previously reported that as part of the logical conclusion of the Mobile Fires Platform program, the UK Ministry of Defense decided to replace the existing fleet of self-propelled artillery systems with the German RCH155 wheeled self-propelled artillery system.

At the end of February, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the largest increase in UK defense spending since the Cold War.

It is planned that the British government will increase the defense budget to 2.5% of GDP starting in April 2027, and then to 3%.

This step is part of a strategy aimed at strengthening national security, stimulating economic growth and protecting British interests in the face of increasing global instability.

The British government plans to allocate funds for the development of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and space technologies.