Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 7 May 2025, 14:54 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Defence Test and Evaluation Service Future (DTES)(F)

Authority: Defence Equipment and Support (Central government)

ServicesAbove thresholdDefence & securitySME suitable
Sectors: Research & Development (R&D) (73) Delivery: Delivery location not published
Planned pipeline value£1pipeline notice, not a live tender · 1 value update
Tender notice expected 31 Mar 2029from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 10 yrsends 1 Apr 2043 · up to 1 Apr 2048 with extensions · starts 1 Apr 2033

What is being bought

Published requirement description

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has an enduring requirement for the provision of Test and Evaluation (T&E) services. T&E is core to all Defence equipment programmes to ensure the reliability and fitness for purpose of the equipment it uses.

The MOD has established a T&E Transformation Programme which is reviewing how T&E will be delivered in the future and how new, innovative technologies can improve and enhance current capability to enable T&E for military advantage rather than solely for equipment acceptance.

The Transformation Programme is developing a new requirement for the provision of future T&E services and there is an opportunity for Industry to help shape this. The MOD has identified the following potential grouping of T&E services to facilitate a conversation with industry, but this is not exhaustive and will likely evolve because of our engagement:

  • Virtual T&E Platform: Common infrastructure, architecture, assets and capabilities required to support modelling and simulation-based T&E.
  • Live T&E Platform: Centrally funded estate, range infrastructure and T&E capability to support real world testing and data capture for evaluation and model validation.
  • Deployable T&E Platform: Common enablers of T&E capabilities that can be deployed and user-operated anywhere.

CPV: Test and evaluation

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 10 yrsSME
Contract period: 1 Apr 2033 – 1 Apr 2043 (10 yrs) · up to 1 Apr 2048 with extensions
Eligibility: 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 Test and evaluation (CPV 7343), 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: Test and evaluation (CPV 7343) →

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 · all categories
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: 39 of 115 known-size awards · market: CPV 7343 · UK-wide, n=8
34%50%

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 South West England (authority’s region).

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 13 of 105 known-location awards · market: division 73 · South West England (authority’s region), n=93
12%26%

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

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: division 73 · South West England (authority’s region), n=10
75 days26 days

Half of these awards were announced within 75 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.

Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 161 of 178 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 7343 · UK-wide, n=12
90%58%

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 buyer20 lots with bid counts · all categories
50% had one bid
The market25 lots with bid counts · division 73 · South West England (authority’s region)
28% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid50% / 28%
Buyer: 10 of 20 lots with published bid counts. Market: 7 of 25 lots with published bid counts.
2–335% / 8%
Buyer: 7 of 20 lots with published bid counts. Market: 2 of 25 lots with published bid counts.
4–610% / 24%
Buyer: 2 of 20 lots with published bid counts. Market: 6 of 25 lots with published bid counts.
7+5% / 40%
Buyer: 1 of 20 lots with published bid counts. Market: 10 of 25 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 market18 lots with estimate and award · division 73 · South West England (authority’s region)
44% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate43% / 44%
Buyer: 6 of 14 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 8 of 18 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%36% / 56%
Buyer: 5 of 14 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 10 of 18 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate21% / 0%
Buyer: 3 of 14 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 0 of 18 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 7343120 monthsSME suitableNo real estimate
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 25 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet28% single-bid risk
Past bids on 25 similar lots
1 bid28%
7 of 25 similar past lots received 1 bid (28%).
2–38%
2 of 25 similar past lots received 2–3 (8%).
4–624%
6 of 25 similar past lots received 4–6 (24%).
7+40%
10 of 25 similar past lots received 7+ (40%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 5 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 real estimate
The buyer published £1 as the estimate (a placeholder, not the contract’s value), so there is nothing to forecast against.

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
Above threshold (FTS publication)
Regulatory regime
Defence & security
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
7 May 2025, 14:54 BST
Last source update
8 Jan 2026, 15:20 GMT
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-001550
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Test and evaluation
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-050df5 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

7 May 2025 → 1 Apr 2033 · 5 dates
  1. Planning notice published
    7 May 2025, 14:54 BST
  2. Latest notice published286 days ago
    8 Jan 2026, 15:20 GMT
  3. Market engagement238 days ago
    25 Feb 2026, 23:59 GMT

    The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has an enduring requirement for Test and Evaluation (T&E) services, critical to ensuring the reliability and fitness for purpose of all Defence equipment.

    To meet future challenges, MOD has launched the T&E Transformation Programme, exploring how innovative technologies can enhance capability and deliver T&E for military advantage, not just equipment acceptance. As part of this transformation, MOD is developing our strategy for delivering future T&E services. Industry is invited to help shape this strategy.

    MOD are interested to gather insights on capabilities, processes, and innovative approaches for delivering T&E across Virtual, Live, and Deployable platforms. This includes a theoretical problem statement to understand how industry would respond to a Defence tasking both from a technical perspective and a process perspective.

    The Theoretical Problem Statement and Request for Information (RFI) response form will be a Microsoft Word Document held by the DTES(F) Project Team.

    Suppliers are to register their interest to respond to the Theoretical Problem Statement and RFI by emailing the DTES(F) Multiuser account ([email protected]) by 22/01/2026.

    Suppliers who register interest will then receive a copy of the Theoretical Problem Statement and RFI on 23/01/2026 via email.

    Suppliers should submit their responses to the RFI via the DTES(F) Multiuser account ([email protected]) by 25/02/2026.

  4. Today
    22 Oct 2026
  5. Tender notice expected
    31 Mar 2029, 23:59 BST
  6. Contract starts
    1 Apr 2033, 00:00 BST

Notice history

4 events · 3 releases on Find a Tender · since 7 May 2025
  1. Pipeline notice published
    7 May 2025, 14:54 BST
    UK1
  2. Pipeline notice published
    9 May 2025, 13:10 BST
    UK1
  3. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    8 Jan 2026, 15:20 GMT
    UK2
  4. Published value published: £1
    8 Jan 2026, 15:20 GMT
Published amendments (1)

Previously published PIN found at: https://contracts.mod.uk/esop/toolkit/notice/showNationalData.do?noticeId=1374557#fh The reply to email address has been changed. This is a change to previously published UK 1 Notice: https://contracts.mod.uk/esop/toolkit/noticeFts/info/1478002/view.si#fh OCD number: ocds-h6vhtk-050df5

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 (3)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure

  • Preliminary market engagement notice planningPreliminary market engagement noticeUK2Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
  • Pipeline notice planningPipeline noticeUK1Pipeline notice on Find a Tender
  • Pipeline notice planningPipeline noticeUK1Pipeline notice on Find a Tender