Pipeline Notice - Surface Finishing Delivery for the RAF
£95,000,000 — stated in the notice
This is a large award for Industrial Machinery — above three-quarters of comparable contracts. Based on 5,734 valued Industrial Machinery tenders in our corpus.
Ministry of Defence publishes Industrial Machinery work continuously — 128 notices, roughly one every 6 days. This is a stream to watch, not a cycle to wait for.
58% of Ministry of Defence’s awards go to a supplier it has used before.
Which is the argument for getting on the list rather than winning this one. The incumbent is rarely the last winner — it is the roster. See the retention odds by category →
Who keeps this kind of work
Across Industrial Machinery, when a buyer awards this kind of work again, two rates matter. They differ in what they count, so read both.
incumbency_v2, CPV division 42: 2,346 repeat events, canonical supplier identity; no rate below 60 events. The odds by category →
The Authority requires a Surface Finish (SF) capability to support Air Systems in the Project URD.
This capability is essential to ensure the continued airworthiness of these Air Systems, as mandated by the relevant Platform Engineering Authorities.
Additionally, the Authority requires an SF capability for Mechanical Transport (MT) and Aircraft Ground Support Equipment (GSE) collectively called ASE to support corrosion control and visual signature management in line with current policies.
The SF capability will also be required to deliver miscellaneous station support tasks, such as the production of signage and other station workshop outputs.
This capability must be readily accessible to all RAF stations across the UK and to UK Strategic Command (UKStratCom) Permanent Joint Operating Bases (PJOBs) overseas.
What the notice asks for
The Authority requires a Surface Finish (SF)
The Authority requires a Surface Finish (SF) capability to support Air Systems in the Project URD.
This capability is essential to ensure
This capability is essential to ensure the continued airworthiness of these Air Systems, as mandated by the relevant Platform Engineering Authorities.
Additionally, the Authority requires an SF capability
Additionally, the Authority requires an SF capability for Mechanical Transport (MT) and Aircraft Ground Support Equipment (GSE) collectively called ASE to support corrosion control and visual signature management in line with current policies.
The SF capability will also be required
The SF capability will also be required to deliver miscellaneous station support tasks, such as the production of signage and other station workshop outputs.
This capability must be readily accessible
This capability must be readily accessible to all RAF stations across the UK and to UK Strategic Command (UKStratCom) Permanent Joint Operating Bases (PJOBs) overseas.
Sentences from the notice that state an obligation, surfaced automatically and shown in the order they appear. Not an exhaustive list — always confirm against the tender documents.
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The official sources for this notice
- The official notice on Find a Tender The buyer's own publication. The tender documents, clarifications and any change to the deadline are published there or on the portal it names, not here.
- Suppliers: how to register your organisation on Find a Tender in three easy steps (GOV.UK) Register the organisation with GOV.UK One Login, complete the supplier information, then declare it and create a share code to enter in the buyer's tendering portal.
- Guidance: Central Digital Platform and Publication of Information (GOV.UK) Buyers must obtain confirmation that a bidding supplier has registered and shared its core supplier information on the platform; in a competitive tendering procedure that is due before the end of the tendering period (paragraphs 9, 60 and 66).
- Notice types and sequences (Find a Tender) This is a UK2 preliminary market engagement notice. Find a Tender's own page says what each notice type is for and which comes next.
Outside sources opened 29 September 2026. Shown because the notice's legal basis is the Procurement Act 2023 (horizon_notice_facts.regime).
- OCID
- ocds-h6vhtk-0663a6
- Stage
- planning · planned
- Source
- Find a Tender
- Buyer ref
- 027101-2026
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source data © Crown copyright.
Who wins this kind of work
The suppliers and buyers around this opportunity — drawn from official award data. Drag to orbit; click a node to explore.
Top suppliers & buyers in Industrial Machinery
Ministry of Defence’s tender network
01/ Questions
This tender, answered
02/ Method
How this page is made
Live figures
The notice's fields come from its own Find a Tender or Contracts Finder publication (tenders, read by OCID or slug). The value is resolved once per notice by the value render contract, so a framework ceiling is labelled as a ceiling and never printed as a price.
“What happened last time” reads horizon_prior_notice — the same buyer, an earlier notice, title similarity of 80% or more, and more than 45 days apart so a republication is not counted — and the named winners from notice_award_supplier. The re-win rates are incumbency_v2 for the notice's CPV division, withheld below 60 repeat events.
The readiness checklist quotes the requirements matched in this notice's text (tender_requirement) and adds the general steps every bid needs. The deadline in the planner is the notice's; the days you need are yours.
Outside sources
- Suppliers: how to register your organisation on Find a Tender in three easy steps (GOV.UK) — opened 29 September 2026.
- Guidance: Central Digital Platform and Publication of Information (GOV.UK) — paragraphs 9, 60, 66 and 74, opened 29 September 2026.
- Notice types and sequences (Find a Tender) — the UK1–UK7 notice names, opened 29 September 2026.
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