The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has announced a tender for the provision of Munition Packaging Services, with a £58 million contract to be awarded for a five-year term, running from March 2026 to March 2031.
The contract covers a broad range of packaging requirements for approximately 60 different container types, including “pallet sized Unit Load Specifications (ULS) for artillery ammunition to Small Arms Ammunition Containers and other common user items.” This includes both high value, low volume and low value, high volume packaging solutions.
The contract will also include critical elements such as the “procurement of internal packaging,” the “sourcing and procurement of new ammunition containers,” and “container security seals.” Furthermore, the MOD has emphasised the need for “a warehouse stock management system” to track all stock, with items identified using a NATO Stock Number (NSN) or drawing number when an NSN is unavailable.
In addition to the logistics and packaging aspects, the contract stipulates a focus on environmental responsibility, with waste from “processing, refurbishment, stock management, and obsolescence” to be disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner, as part of an “Environmental Management Plan and Disposal Management Plan.”
The plan also encourages “gainshare” solutions to return value to the authority. The contract includes nine major areas of responsibility:
- Refurbishment
- Post-Design Services
- Sourcing and Procurement of Internal Packaging
- 1814kg NATO 2 Tonne pallets and Pallet Tray
- Container Security Seals
- Warehousing
- Recycling
- Procurement of new ammunition containers
- Project & Contract Management
Bidders can choose to bid for two different lots: one covering all areas, or the specific procurement of new ammunition containers. The contract is open to SMEs and represents a key part of the MOD’s logistics and supply chain management. The deadline for bid submissions is 21 March 2025.
Hard to know what that means.
The inventory management could be the lions share of the money.
My first thought was that £58m of packaging and pallets is an awful lot of them at commercial rates…
I’ve worked in warehouses and while they can in theory store a whole lot of ammo they aren’t exactly great if they start getting shot at.
Is UK ammo stored underground and away from towns?
Ammo is bunkered away from built up areas
It wasn’t until the Ukraine war and the sheer number of shells being used daily and the 600k odd donated by the uk, had I realised just how huge these stockpiles must physically be, especially when combined with packaging etc to keep them safe and ready.
And yet, they’re not nearly big enough!