Official UK procurement notice
UK1 - Project OLCHAR · UK public procurement notice
Authority: Ministry of Defence (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Authority is undertaking preliminary market engagement to understand and assess the availability and maturity of industry’s capability of contributing to the development of a sovereign, safe by design Fuzing System incorporating an Electronic Safe & Arm Device (ESAD), intended for use across a range of armed uncrewed systems. The requirement concerns a common, platform agnostic safety and arming solution over which the Ministry of Defence will retain full intellectual property rights to enable future manufacture, modification and competitive integration.
CPV: Designs
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Planned
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Ministry of Defence buys Postcards (CPV 2231), and who usually turns up
Ministry of Defence’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: Postcards (CPV 2231) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
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 East England (authority’s region).
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in South East England.
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.
Half of these awards were announced within 43 days of the bid deadline.
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.
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.
1 bid46% / 7%
2–332% / 34%
4–617% / 27%
7+5% / 32%
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.
Below estimate61% / 44%
Within ±2%22% / 48%
Above estimate17% / 8%
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.
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 2231Published estimate£2.0m
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 44 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid7%
2–334%
4–627%
7+32%
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.
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.
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.
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
- Goods
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- 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
- 6 Mar 2026, 15:35 GMT
- Last source update
- 6 Mar 2026, 15:36 GMT
- Authority reference
715807483- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-020551- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-066483Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
6 Mar 2026 → 30 Apr 2026 · 4 dates- Planning notice published230 days ago6 Mar 2026, 15:35 GMT
- Market engagement206 days ago30 Mar 2026, 23:59 BST
The Authority will conduct this preliminary market engagement through a combination of a request for information (RFI) questionnaire (which will be available until 17:00 30 March 2026) and a face to face supplier engagement session on 24 March 2026.
Suppliers wishing to attend the session must register via a Microsoft Forms registration link (forms.office.com/e/FsyzvHQcWb ↗) by 17:00 19 March 2026. Attendance will be limited to two representatives per organisation. There are 16 spaces available for the in- person sessions. These will be allocated on a first come first served basis. The sessions will be 30 minutes long (max) and will be held at Army Headquarters. Suppliers that apply for the in-person sessions will be made aware of their timeslot by 12:00 20 March 2026. The questions and answers will be recorded from each session and, for complete openness and transparency, shall be made available via the Defence Sourcing Portal (DSP) Project OLCHAR Opportunity Listing as an attachment by 17:00 26 March 2026. Suppliers do not have to attend the session on the 18 March 2026 in order to submit a response.
To respond to this notice, please complete the below linked MS Forms questionnaire by 17:00 30 March 2026.
forms.office.com/e/GudffESMNy ↗
Participation is voluntary and does not form part of any future competition. Responses will be reviewed to identify areas of clarity, challenge and potential flexibility within the emerging requirement, and the Authority may seek clarification from respondents where appropriate. Supporting material is available for download through the Project OLCHAR DSP opportunity listing, including further detail on the emerging requirement.
Suppliers should note that any subsequent procurement activity may be conducted via the Commercial X Dynamic Market, and organisations interested in future participation are encouraged to register and familiarise themselves with the applicable Dynamic Market Readiness Levels (DRLs). It is anticipated that this requirement will fall within the DRLs 1 and 2.
Applications to the Dynamic Market need to be completed on the Defence Sourcing Portal (DSP) contracts.mod.uk/esop/ogc-host/public… ↗.
- On the home page, click 'view DSP opportunities'
- make sure you’re in the 'current opportunities tab'
- click the 'filters' drop down and select 'project info'
- in the 'value' field type 'commercial x' and click 'search'
You should be able to access the ‘PQQ’ event that we are using for the applications. There is also downloadable content available in the opportunity listing providing further information about the Dynamic Market.
To complete applications you need to have a profile completed on the Central Digital Platform (www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Search ↗) so that you can share your company details as part of the application process.
- Tender notice expected204 days ago1 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST
- Contract starts176 days ago30 Apr 2026, 00:00 BST
Notice history
2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 6 Mar 2026- Pipeline notice published6 Mar 2026, 15:35 GMTUK1
- Preliminary market engagement notice published6 Mar 2026, 15:36 GMTUK2
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
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Pipeline notice Pipeline notice on Find a Tender