The Ministry of Defence has confirmed a £52 million joint contract with Germany to acquire an Early Capability Demonstrator for the RCH 155 155mm wheeled howitzer. One platform will be delivered to the British Army and two to Germany for combined trials and evaluation, with both governments sharing access to test facilities and data.
The RCH 155 is integrated on the Boxer 8x8 armoured vehicle and is designed to fire while moving. According to the MoD announcement, the system is claimed to engage targets at ranges up to 70 km, sustain up to eight rounds per minute, manoeuvre at road speeds approaching 100 km/h, and operate with a two‑person crew through high levels of automation. The platform also has a stated road range of about 700 km between refuelling.
This mobility and rate of fire are positioned by the MoD as a response to lessons observed from the war in Ukraine, where rapid repositioning and survivability against counter‑battery fire have proved decisive. The ability to engage in any direction without first deploying stabilisers is intended to shorten sensor‑to‑shooter timelines and reduce the window of vulnerability.
For the UK, the demonstrator sits within the British Army’s Mobile Fires Platform requirement, which seeks a long‑term successor to interim systems. The Army is currently operating 14 Archer howitzers as a short‑term replacement after gifting AS90 guns to Ukraine; the RCH 155 is being examined as a potential enduring option, with the ECD designed to inform that decision.
The contract is framed by both governments as a practical outcome of the UK–Germany Trinity House agreement signed in October 2024. By procuring together and running joint trials, London and Berlin expect to accelerate testing milestones, compress procurement schedules and reduce duplication, with the MoD highlighting value for money for taxpayers.
Interoperability is a central objective. Fielding a Boxer‑mounted artillery system would align with the UK’s existing Boxer programme and Germany’s fleet, increasing commonality in mobility, digital architecture and support. If adopted at scale, shared platform elements would be expected to ease multinational deployment and sustainment in NATO formations.
Under the demonstrator programme, the two defence ministries plan to test live and simulated firing, mobility over distance, digital fire‑control, and the resilience of automated loading with a two‑person crew. Shared access to ranges and instrumentation should allow a single set of acceptance evidence to be recognised by both sides, shortening the path to any production decision.
An Early Capability Demonstrator is not a production commitment. In UK procurement terms, it is a de‑risking phase used to validate performance, integration and safety prior to a main investment decision. Results from the ECD will guide requirement refinement, training assumptions and support solutions for any subsequent Mobile Fires Platform acquisition.
The MoD links the arrangement to the Strategic Defence Review, presenting it as part of a wider push to modernise fires, improve readiness and support skilled jobs in the UK defence sector. The announcement did not set out detailed UK industrial workshare for the demonstrator phase; those specifics typically follow once options transition from evaluation to manufacture.
Operationally, the claimed two‑person crew model and shoot‑on‑the‑move capability would change battery tactics compared with legacy tracked systems that halt to fire. For planners, this points to different crew training profiles, altered logistics footprints and new requirements for protected command‑and‑control vehicles alongside the artillery troop.
In NATO terms, the joint programme is intended to raise readiness and make British and German artillery units more interchangeable on exercises and operations. Shared testing and data standards should enable common procedures from fire planning to ammunition handling, supporting collective defence commitments.
The ministries emphasise that the demonstrator is aimed at speeding credible choices rather than pre‑judging them. The immediate deliverable is evidence: whether a wheeled, Boxer‑based howitzer can meet the UK’s long‑term Mobile Fires need with the required precision, tempo and survivability, and whether doing so jointly delivers the promised time and cost benefits.