[IDEX 2025] Beretta Plans to Launch Small Arms Production in the UK

There was a time when Great Britain was one of the world’s largest firearms manufacturers. But now the UK does not have the capability to produce service rifles anymore, instead outsourcing repair and modernization to H&K in Germany. However, the situation is about to change. At the IDEX 2025 exhibition in Abu-Dhabi, I met with Jack Cadman, Beretta Defense Technologies UK’s Law Enforcement and Military Group Manager to discuss BDT regarding the UK market.

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Jack, can you tell us more about your role in the company and the new products BDT brought to IDEX this year?

I focus on the UK military and law enforcement markets. Beretta group of companies, Beretta Defence Technology, encompasses Beretta, Benelli, Sako, Steiner, Centanex, and some ammunition companies. So I have kind of a siloed perspective on what is important for the UK market at this moment in time.

I think the key area, and it's not an immediately new product, is the Beretta new assault rifle platform, it's our new individual weapon system, based on AR-15 controls, but with kind of the lessons learned across all of the AR-15s that we've had previously.

For me specifically, I'm heavily focused on the AR-15s currently, because we've got a thing called Project Grayburn, which is the UK replacement for the individual weapon system across the military. So we're going from the SA-80, which is an outdated weapon system. You know enough about the SA-80.

I mean… It's an interesting example of a rifle.

Yeah, exactly. That's a huge program that's going to be ongoing, essentially looking to replace it in 2030 onwards. That's a key target for Beretta Defense Technologies.

So do you have any plans to, let's say, revitalize the small arms in the UK?

Absolutely. So we've done our mission analysis on Project Grayburn, and this is something that we've seen the MOD, the Ministry of Defense, play catch up on. But it kind of comes to the same conclusions that we have around national security, resiliency, and economic prosperity, so having your own capability to produce small arms. We see it as critical given the geopolitical climate and essentially years of underinvestment in small arms manufacturing capability within the UK.

So that's something that we're absolutely looking forward to, and it's going to be a huge part of this project, Project Grayburn, given the fact that we know that economic prosperity is a key government initiative and target.

We are proposing to put an industrial production facility in the UK and use UK suppliers within that because we quickly realized: that it's all very well talking about the resiliency of your supply chain, but if it's just the production facility that is in the UK, then you're not exactly going to safeguard yourself.

But I think it's important to mention that we're very keen to support the MOD and become a strategic partner of theirs. And I think the MOD is becoming much better at it, understanding the level of investment and the demand signal that is required for that to happen. So that's something that we're absolutely putting in.

It's also pretty worth noting that it's not the first time that Beretta has done this. So thankfully, luckily, we are in a position where we have recently, in the last few years, very much done a similar project in Qatar.

There was a joint venture with the Qatari procurement Barzan Holdings, so Beretta and Barzani, created a company called Bindig, and essentially we are supplying the small arms to the Qatari National Guard. So we've got the blueprint, and it's something that we have experience with.

So there is a manufacturing component in Qatar as well, not just assembly?

Absolutely, yeah. So that's what we've done: industrialization and transfer of technology is something that is in Beretta's blueprint, given the fact that we did it in the U. S. with the M9, we've done it in Turkey, we've done it in Qatar now.

So we want to produce a fully made U. K. weapons system, and that's something we think the MOD would align with their objectives.

Thanks! How do you like this exhibition, IDEX? Do you think it is an effective tool for defense industry marketing?

I think this is one of the better shows that I've been to, and I've done all of the circuit. The audience is what makes any of these shows great. The delegates that turn up, that you are able to have those conversations with, is where the value of the show is. You just want to be able to speak to the customer, right?

There are not enough opportunities within the defense industry to do that. So IDEX, I think, has a pretty good model in terms of making sure the right delegations turn up. In terms of the diversity of potential customers, I don't think there is anything else like IDEX.