Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2018-08-18
Buyer: Ministry of Defence, Weapons, Defence General Munitions (DGM) Project Team
Country: UK
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 35300000: Weapons, ammunition and associated parts
Estimated value: 230000000 GBP
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: Defence General Munitions (DGM), part of UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), is responsible for the supply of general munitions to the UK Armed Forces that are sustainable, safe and suitable for operational and training purposes.
Prior information note (PIN) published under Tenders electronic daily (TED) (reference 2018/S 103-236486) provides notification that UK MoD is conducting a strategic review of its general munitions requirements and solutions from 2023. This review includes exploration of a wide range of procurement and commercial strategy options and the market has been provided with the opportunity to provide feedback on these options as described within the PIN. Separately and in the interim period to 2023, UK MoD has an enduring need to replenish and sustain its general munitions stockpile.
Accordingly the UK MoD proposes to let an enabling contract with Chemring Group for explosives, countermeasures and pyrotechnics. This contract will be of 5 year’s core duration with options to extend by up to 2 years (dependent on the future strategy for all general munitions from 2023). Throughput under this contract is estimated at 230 000 000 GBP influenced by the operational and training demand signal.
It is considered that for technical reasons this contract can be placed using the Negotiated procedure without prior publication, pursuant to Article 28(1)(e) of Directive 2009/81/EC (Regulation 16(1)(a)(ii). Chemring are the suppliers of the original goods, and current stockpile, and have satisfied MoD Standards for Safety and suitability for service. Chemring have the technical knowledge and documentary evidence which is necessary for upholding the safety standards required by the MoD and therefore fulfil this requirement. No other supplier would be able to pass the Standards and suitability for service tests within the timescales required by the MoD to fulfil this operational requirement. Obtaining goods from any other supplier would result in incompatibility with the existing goods and create significant interoperability issues for a diverse range of weapon systems which this requirement supports.
The Authority reserves the right to amend any condition related to security of information to reflect any changes in national law or government policy. If any contract documents are accompanied by instructions on safeguarding classified information (e.g. a Security aspects letter), the Authority reserves the right to amend the terms of these instructions to reflect any changes in national law or government policy, whether in respect of the applicable protective marking scheme, specific protective markings given, the aspects to which any protective marking applies, or otherwise. The link below to the Gov.uk website provides information on the Government security classification.
— This contract opportunity is published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU),the MoD Defence contracts bulletin and www.contracts.mod.uk GO Reference: GO-2018816-DCB-13022837


Winner: Chemring Countermeasures
Award value: 230000000