CONTRACT NOTICE FOR CONTRACTS IN THE FIELD OF DEFENCE AND SECURITY

Section I: Contracting Authority

I.1)

Name, Address and Contact Point(s)

I.2)

Type of contracting Authority and Main Activity or Activities

Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local sub-divisions National or federal agency/Office Regional or local Authority Regional or local Agency/Office Body governed by public law European Institution/Agency or International Organisation

General public services Defence Public order and safety Environment Economic and financial affairs Health Housing and community amenities Social protection Recreation, culture and religion Education

Section II: Object of the Contract

II.1)

Description

II.1.1)

Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority

II.1.2)

Type of supplies contract

	Purchase
	Rent
	Lease
	Hire-purchase
	Combination of these

Main site or location of works, place of delivery or performance

II.1.3)

Information on framework agreement

The notice involves the establishment of a framework agreement

II.1.4)

Information on framework agreement (if applicable)

	Framework agreement with a single operators
	Framework agreement with several operators

Number of participants to the framework agreement envisaged

Duration of the framework agreement

Justification for a framework agreement the duration of which exceeds seven years

Estimated total value of purchases for the entire duration of the framework agreement

Frequency and value of the contracts to be awarded

II.1.5)

Short description of the contract or purchase(s)

The Ministry of Defence (“MOD”) is seeking to procure a future tactical ballistic missile through a short-term development programme. This requirement has been denoted Project NIGHTFALL.

The Authority’s requirement for Project NIGHTFALL:

Demonstrate a cost-effective, tactical (>500km) ballistic missile system, capable of being safely ground launched from a mobile platform in a high threat tactical environment, navigating to and accurately striking a user-programmed fixed target co-ordinate. It shall be operable in harsh physical environments, day and night, resilient in a complex Electromagnetic environment (EME), including within a GNSS contested/degraded environment, and resistant against targeted EW attack and spoofing.

The system requires the ability to deliver multiple (>2) effectors from a single ground vehicle. Each effector must carry a circa 200kg (high explosive) payload over 500km on a ballistic trajectory at supersonic speeds, with some basic manoeuvrability. The effector must be able to navigate in a GNSS contested/degraded environment and strike within 10m of a provided target co-ordinate 50% of the time i.e. have a CEP50 of 10m.

The effector must be able to strike targets within 10 minutes of launch. All NIGHTFALL effectors must be fired from the same launcher. Post launch, the ground vehicle/launcher and crew must be able to rapidly leave the area, within 15 minutes of launching all effectors.

We are looking for systems that can be delivered within 9-12 months to provide at least five all-up units for trials. The design should minimise and ideally be free from foreign government trade and usage restrictions, such as export control. The design must have the ability to be upgraded in the future, such as increasing the range, accuracy, in-flight manoeuvrability, fitted telemetry and other elements as required. It is a principle of project NIGHTFALL that the level of anticipated GFX should be minimised or eliminated where possible.

Subject to potential future contract, manufacturing shall be scalable to meet operational requirements at a minimum of 10 units per month, with the ability to further increase.

The purpose of this Contract Notice (“CN”) is to advertise the requirement and invite potential suppliers to express their interest and participate in the competitive procurement and receive the ITT for Project NIGHTFALL. Suppliers should only respond if they are (themselves or as part of a consortium with other suppliers) in a position to undertake the full development programme and can meet the full requirement as set out above.

All suppliers who express an interest in this procurement, and who have returned an acknowledgement of their responsibilities with regards to the NIGHTFALL Security Aspects Letter (“SAL”) and Confidentiality Undertaking by the deadline, will be invited to participate and submit a response to the NIGHTFALL ITT (see further detail below).

Intended Procurement Process

The procurement is planned to consist of:

a. A NIGHTFALL Competitive Development Phase (“CDP”) Invitation to Tender (“ITT”). A CDP ITT will be used to select suitable suppliers to tender for a CDP Contract; and

b. NIGHTFALL CDP Contract(s) for the design development and testing programme for Project NIGHTFALL.

Only those suppliers who have expressed an interest and returned a completed SAL and Confidentiality Undertaking will be invited to tender for a CDP Contract. The Authority intends to award up to three (3) NIGHTFALL CDP Contracts, the terms of will be set out by the Authority in the procurement documents.

The CDP is a funded phase of the NIGHTFALL programme where suppliers will develop and mature their proposed solutions for Project NIGHTFALL. It is anticipated that the CDP Contract will last approximately twelve (12) months from Contract award.

General

Whilst what is set out above is the intended procurement process, the Authority, in its sole discretion, reserves the right to amend in any way and/or cancel the procurement process. The Authority reserves the right to withdraw this notice at any time for any reason.

The Authority reserves the right not to award any Contract to any supplier at any stage during the procurement. The Authority does not bind itself to enter into any Contract(s) arising out of the proceedings envisaged by this CN and no contractual rights express or implied arise out of this CN or the procedures envisaged by it.

This Procurement is exempt from the requirements of the Procurement Act 2023 (“PA 2023”). By expressing and interest to participate in the Procurement you acknowledge (and continue to acknowledge) that none of the obligations, rights or remedies deriving from the PA 2023 apply to this Procurement.

Other than any amount that may be paid to successful supplier(s) in accordance with the terms of the NIGHTFALL CDP Contract, any suppliers who respond to this procurement (irrespective of whether they are assessed to meet the ITT requirements or are evaluated to be successful suppliers) shall be fully responsible for the cost of responding to the procurement and the Authority does not accept any liability for any costs howsoever incurred including but not limited to those costs arising out of or in connection with any amendment to, or cancellation of, the procurement process.

II.1.6)

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

II.1.7)

Information about subcontracting

	The tenderer has to indicate in the tender any share of the contract it may intend to subcontract to third parties and any proposed subcontractor, as well as the subject-matter of the subcontracts for which they are proposed.
	The tenderer has to indicate any change occurring at the level of subcontractors during the execution of the contract.
	The contracting authority/entity may oblige the successful tenderer to award all or certain subcontracts through the procedure set out in Title III of Directive 2009/81/EC.
	The successful tenderer is obliged to specify which part or parts of the contract it intends to subcontract beyond the required percentage and to indicate the subcontractors already identified.
	The successful tenderer is obliged to subcontract the following share of the contract through the procedure set out in Title III of Directive 2009/81/EC: minimum percentage: (%), maximum percentage: (%) of the value of the contract. (The maximum percentage may not exceed 30% of the value of the contract)

II.1.8)

Division into lots

II.1.9)

Will variants be accepted

Section III: Legal, Economic, Financial and Technical Information

III.2)

Conditions for Participation

III.2.1)

Personal situation

To express an interest to this procurement you must send your lead bidder’s / company name and two point of contact details (to include; names, phone numbers, email address, and postal address) to:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=7WB3vlNZS0iuldChbfoJ5YetrIitR-tAtwOsHNa4umdUNFdSNFlNVzY0RzRTRlgzTEE4UFRHMkhUWi4u

Suppliers who express an interest in this procurement and who have returned an acknowledgement of their responsibilities with regards to the SAL and Confidentiality Undertaking by the deadline, will be invited to participate in the Procurement.

The NIGHTFALL SAL outlines the appropriate measures the Authority deems necessary to safeguard the protective aspects that pertain to this procurement. The NIGHTFALL Confidentiality Undertaking outlines the confidentiality provisions the Authority deems necessary to ensure aspects that pertain to this procurement are kept confidential in accordance with the terms of the Confidentiality Undertaking.

The deadline for expressing an interest in this procurement and issued a response to the SAL and Confidentiality Undertaking, is 12:00 midday on 18 December 2025. The Authority reserves the right to reject any expressions of interest received after this time, and/or responses to the SAL and Confidentiality Undertaking uploaded after this time, in the Authority’s sole discretion.

Suppliers Instructions How to Express Interest in this Tender:

1. Register your company on the eSourcing portal (this is only required once)

- Browse to the eSourcing Portal

- Click the “Click here to register” link

- Accept the terms and conditions and click “continue”

- Enter your correct business and user details

- Note the username you chose and click “Save” when complete

- You will shortly receive an email with your unique password (please keep this secure)

2. Express an Interest in the tender

- Login to the portal with the username/password

- Click the "PQQs Open to All Suppliers" link. (These are Pre-Qualification Questionnaires open to any registered supplier)

- Click on the relevant PQQ to access the content.

- Click the “Express Interest” button in the “Actions” box on the left-hand side of the page.

- This will move the PQQ into your “My PQQs” page. (This is a secure area reserved for your projects only)

- Click on the PQQ code, you can now access any attachments by clicking the “Settings and Buyer Attachments” in the “Actions” box

3. Responding to the tender

- You can now choose to “Reply” or “Reject” (please give a reason if rejecting)

- You can now use the ‘Messages’ function to communicate with the buyer and seek any clarification

- Note the deadline for completion, then follow the onscreen instructions to complete the PQQ

- There may be a mixture of online & offline actions for you to perform (there is detailed online help available)

If you require any further assistance please consult the online help, or contact the eTendering help desk.

III.2.2)

Economic and financial standing

III.2.3)

Technical and/or professional capacity

III.2.4)

Reserved contracts

	The contract is restricted to sheltered workshops
	The execution of the contract is restricted to the framework of sheltered employment programmes

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)

Type of Procedure

IV.1.1)

Type of Procedure

	Restricted
	Accelerated restricted
	Negotiated
	Accelerated negotiated
	Competitive dialogue

Justification for the choice of accelerated procedure

IV.1.2)

Limitations on the number of operators who will be invited to tender or to participate

Objective criteria for choosing the limited number of candidates

IV.1.3)

Reduction of the number of operators during the negotiation or dialogue

Recourse to staged procedure to gradually reduce the number of solutions to be discussed or tenders to be negotiated

IV.3 Administrative Information

IV.3.1)

Reference number attributed to the notice by the contracting authority

IV.3.2)

Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract

	Prior Information Notice
	Notice on a Buyer Profile

Other previous publications

IV.3.3)

Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents

IV.3.4)

Time-limit for requests to participate

IV.3.5)

Date of dispatch of invitations to tender or to participate to selected candidates

IV.3.6)

Language or languages in which tenders or requests to participate can be drawn up

Section VI: Complimentary Information

VI.1)

Indicate whether this procurement is a recurrent one and the Estimated timing for further notices to be published

VI.2)

Does the contract relate to a Project/Programme financed by Community Funds?

VI.3)

Additional Information

The Contracting Authority intends to use an e-Tendering system in this procurement exercise, please visit www.contracts.mod.uk for full details and to register your interest in this procurement.

VI.4)

Procedures for appeal

VI.4.1)

Body responsible for appeal procedures

Body responsible for mediation procedures

VI.4.2)

Lodging of appeals
Precise information on deadline(s) for lodging appeals:

VI.4.3)

Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained

VI.5)

Dispatch date of this Notice