Strike at UK Arms Depot Threatens Supply of Storm Shadow Missiles for Ukraine

The British government's decision in May to supply long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine drew condemnation from Moscow and broke earlier assurances that NATO would not give Kiev the means to strike deep into Russia.

Trade union leaders have warned a strike at a British Ministry of Defence (MoD) arms could halt missile supplies to Ukraine. Some 50 staff organised by the General, Municipal and Boilermakers' (GMB) trade union walked out at the Defence Equipment and Support (DES) munitions depot in Beith, Scotland on Monday.

Their beef with the armament plant was over their exclusion from bonus scheme benefitting higher-skilled 'craft workers' and managers, creating a "two-tier workforce."

The GMB said the lack of bonuses meant "non-craft workers get less than many supermarket workers" for the extremely safety-critical work of handling high-explosive munitions.

"These workers are utterly vital to the UK armed forces – they deserve to be recognised as such," said GMB Scotland Organiser Chris Kennedy. "Instead, management have allowed a two-tier workforce to develop, fostering bitterness and anger among workers."

Among the weapons shipped from the facility are Storm Shadow cruise missiles and Brimstone radar-guided anti-tank missiles, both of which the government has supplied to Ukraine by the hundreds as part of NATO's proxy conflict with Russia.

The union full-timer noted that the strike was first in the history of the DES — and warned Defence Secretary Ben Wallace that it could jeopardise supplies of munitions to the British armed forces — and by implication the Kiev regime.

"It cannot be allowed to carry on," Kennedy stressed. "If the Defence Secretary does not step in to right this wrong, supplies of the crucial missiles manufactured at Beith will soon run low."

The UK's decision to send aircraft-launched Storm Shadow missiles, with a range of up to 340 miles (550 km), to Ukraine broke earlier pledges by NATO members that they would not give Kiev the capability to strike deep into Russia.

Since their deployment in May on modified Ukrainian Su-24 strike and reconnaissance jets, the missiles have been targeted at cities and civilian infrastructure in Crimea and Donbass republics, which voted in 2014 and 2022 to reunite with Russia.

Russian forces regularly report shooting down several of the missiles at a time for a total of at least 60 — raising questions about how long the UK can maintain supplies from its reported stocks of between 700 and 1,000. At least one has been taken almost intact for study by Russian arms specialists.

French president Emmanuel Macron pledged at last week's NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius to supply the SCALP variant of the missile, of which his country has at most 700 units.

The official cost of British military aid to Ukraine totalled £2.3 billion in 2022, and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised to match that figure by the end of this year.

The walkout by the GMB is just the latest in a wave of strikes that began last summer. Public- and private-sector workers rejected pay offers of four to five per cent as inflation spiralled into double digits — fuelled by government sanctions and import embargoes on Russia over its military operation in Ukraine.