Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 17 Dec 2025, 14:21 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

715735468-RFI UK2 · UK public procurement notice

Authority: Defence Equipment and Support (Central government)

ServicesBelow thresholdSME suitable
Planned pipeline value£500,000,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 10 yrsends 31 May 2037 · up to 31 May 2042 with extensions · starts 1 Jun 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Support Capabilities & Commodities (SCC) is responsible for delivering a wide range of key equipment and services to the frontline, including ongoing overseas operations. SCC currently undertakes the following support activities:

  • Procurement
  • Repairs & Maintenance
  • Safety Management
  • Obsolescence Management
  • Inventory Management
  • Technical and Engineering Services to a raft of Ground Support Equipment (GSE), ancillary ground support equipment and facilities, mechanical (including vehicles) and avionics equipment on all existing aircraft platforms and airfield vehicles.

SCC is looking to challenge the existing way it provides its current support to the frontline commands and therefore seeks to engage with industry to determine the best approach to deliver new innovative support to the SCC capabilities. SCC is intending to achieve this objective through a three-phased approach.

The three phases are: Listen and Gather Information, Learn and Evolve and Execute Procurement Events.

Further information and details of how to respond to this Request for Information (RFI) can be found in the Opporunity Listing at the following link: contracts.mod.uk/esop/guest/go/opport… ↗

CPV: Aircraft-refuelling vehicles · Aircraft-towing vehicles · Cargo handling services · De-icing agents · Gases · Runway sweepers

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 10 yrsSME
Contract period: 1 Jun 2027 – 31 May 2037 (10 yrs) · up to 31 May 2042 with extensions
Delivery: UKEligibility: SME eligible
Extensions: Extension options published

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How Defence Equipment and Support buys Heavy-duty motor vehicles (CPV 3414), and who usually turns up

Defence Equipment and Support’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Heavy-duty motor vehicles (CPV 3414) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerDefence Equipment and Support · division 34
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
i

How often small and medium firms win.

Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.

The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 4 of 12 known-size awards · market: CPV 3414 · West Midlands (authority’s region), n=19
33%42%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
i

How often local firms win similar work.

Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.

Here, local means registered in West Midlands (authority’s region).

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 0 of 2 known-location awards · market: CPV 3414 · West Midlands (authority’s region), n=27
0 of 219%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside West Midlands.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 20 decided notices · market: CPV 3414 · UK-wide, n=16
89 days40 days

Half of these awards were announced within 89 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.

Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.

The market share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: exactly 14 of 15 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 3414 · West Midlands (authority’s region), n=26
93%50%

Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.

How many bids did past lots attract?

i

How many bids past lots received.

Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.

Past bids do not predict this tender.

Last 36 months.

This buyer18 lots with bid counts · all categories
50% had one bid
The market37 lots with bid counts · CPV 3414 · UK-wide
22% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid50% / 22%
Buyer: 9 of 18 lots with published bid counts. Market: 8 of 37 lots with published bid counts.
2–333% / 35%
Buyer: 6 of 18 lots with published bid counts. Market: 13 of 37 lots with published bid counts.
4–611% / 35%
Buyer: 2 of 18 lots with published bid counts. Market: 13 of 37 lots with published bid counts.
7+6% / 8%
Buyer: 1 of 18 lots with published bid counts. Market: 3 of 37 lots with published bid counts.

How did awards compare with estimates?

i

Where winning prices landed against estimates.

Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

This buyer14 lots with estimate and award · all categories
43% below estimate
The market21 lots with estimate and award · CPV 3414 · UK-wide
38% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate43% / 38%
Buyer: 6 of 14 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 8 of 21 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%36% / 29%
Buyer: 5 of 14 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 6 of 21 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate21% / 33%
Buyer: 3 of 14 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 7 of 21 lots with an estimate and award.
2

Assess each lot
i

What past awards tell you about each lot.

See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.

No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 3414120 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£500m
Expected competition
i

How many bids this lot may attract.

The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.

Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 27 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet33% single-bid risk
Past bids on 27 similar lots
1 bid33%
9 of 27 similar past lots received 1 bid (33%).
2–337%
10 of 27 similar past lots received 2–3 (37%).
4–619%
5 of 27 similar past lots received 4–6 (19%).
7+11%
3 of 27 similar past lots received 7+ (11%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 2 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the award price may land.

The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.

No comparable awards for this lot yet.

A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £500m, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

Who has supplied this buyer on similar work?
i

Who has done similar work for this buyer.

Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.

A past supplier may not bid again.

No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.

Who could compete for this lot?
i

Who could compete for this lot?

Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.

None is confirmed as a bidder.

Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.

About this data
  • Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
  • Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
  • Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
  • Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Below threshold
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
17 Dec 2025, 14:21 GMT
Last source update
17 Dec 2025, 14:21 GMT
Authority reference
715735468
FTS notice number
2025/S 000-083901
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Aircraft-refuelling vehiclesAircraft-towing vehiclesCargo handling servicesDe-icing agentsGasesRunway sweepers
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05f801 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

17 Dec 2025 → 1 Jun 2027 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published307 days ago
    17 Dec 2025, 14:21 GMT
  2. Market engagement262 days ago
    30 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMT

    Please see the RFI attachment in the Opportunity Listing for detials on how to engage with the process: contracts.mod.uk/esop/guest/go/opport… ↗

  3. Today
    20 Oct 2026
  4. Contract startsin 224 days
    1 Jun 2027, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    17 Dec 2025, 14:21 GMT
    UK2

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Pipeline notice
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

Defence Equipment and Support

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central government GB-PPON: PVRL-5831-GLMM MOD Abbey Wood, Bristol, South West, BS34 8JHContact name, email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure