The Ministry of Defence spends more than any other UK government department, on a wider range of things than most people assume: not just ships and aircraft, but IT, training, catering, clothing, medical services, construction, logistics, cleaning, cyber security, research and every kind of component in between.
It is also the hardest part of the public sector to break into cold, and the one where the obvious route is least often the right one.
The rules changed in 2025
Defence procurement used to sit under the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011. Those were revoked on 24 February 2025, and defence and security contracts are now covered by the Procurement Act 2023, within its own set of provisions.
Thresholds are higher than for ordinary public contracts, reflecting the nature of the work: from 1 January 2026, £415,440 including VAT for defence and security goods and services, and £5,193,000 for works. Procurements started before February 2025 continue under the old regulations, so the transition tail will be visible for years.
The Act also keeps the exemptions defence has always had, for genuinely sensitive requirements and single-source contracts. A good deal of defence procurement is not openly competed, and that is a structural fact, not an oversight.
Where defence opportunities are published
Defence Sourcing Portal at contracts.mod.uk is the MOD's own eSourcing system, built on Jaggaer. This is the primary place for MOD competitions and where you register as an MOD supplier. It is public to browse and needs registration to bid.
Beyond it:
- Find a Tender carries the notices the Act requires, defence included.
- Contracts Finder carries below-threshold defence work — and there is more of it than people expect.
- Departmental Jaggaer portals for adjacent buyers. The same platform family runs procurement for several other departments and agencies.
- Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) runs themed and open innovation competitions to fund development of new capability. This is closer to research funding than procurement, and it is one of the genuinely open doors for a small technology company.
The route most new suppliers actually take
Direct MOD contracts are generally large, long and awarded to organisations with track record, clearance and capacity. For most companies the realistic entry point is the supply chain of a prime contractor — the large defence manufacturers and service integrators who hold the MOD contract and subcontract substantial parts of it.
That is not a consolation prize. It is how the sector works, and the primes are under contractual and political pressure to open their supply chains to smaller UK firms.
Three practical moves:
- Register on the primes' own supplier portals. Each major defence contractor runs its own, and each has a supply chain team whose job is finding capability.
- Join the sector bodies and regional defence clusters. Trade associations and regional growth hubs run supplier days where primes describe what they are looking for. This is where the actual conversations happen.
- Watch contract award notices for the big programmes. When a prime wins a multi-year contract, its subcontracting starts within months. The award notice is your signal to make contact.
What defence asks for that other buyers do not
Cyber security, formally assessed. Defence contracts are risk-assessed for cyber, and suppliers are expected to meet a defined level of control appropriate to the information they will hold. Cyber Essentials, and often Cyber Essentials Plus, is a practical baseline. Get certified before you need it — it takes weeks, not days, and appears as a requirement with little notice.
Security clearance. Personnel clearance takes months and is sponsored, not something you can obtain speculatively. If a competition requires cleared staff and you have none, that is usually a genuine barrier for that contract, and an argument for starting with unclassified work.
Export control and ITAR. Anything touching controlled technology brings licensing obligations. Understand your exposure before you sign, not after.
Quality and traceability. Defence standards for quality management, configuration control, obsolescence management and counterfeit avoidance are stricter than commercial norms, and audited.
Long timescales. Programmes run for years and decisions take months. Cash flow planning for defence work is not the same as for a council maintenance contract.
Where a smaller company genuinely competes
Not on platforms. On the surrounding requirements, where the MOD buys like any other large organisation:
- Software, data, simulation and training systems
- Specialist engineering, testing and calibration services
- Facilities management, catering, cleaning and estate maintenance across the defence estate
- Medical, welfare and occupational health services
- Logistics, storage, packaging and distribution
- Professional services: recruitment, training, consultancy, translation
- Niche components, spares and obsolescence management
Much of this is below the defence threshold and appears on Contracts Finder as ordinary public sector work.
A realistic first year
- Register on the Defence Sourcing Portal and on Find a Tender.
- Get Cyber Essentials certified, and plan for Cyber Essentials Plus if you will handle MOD information.
- Watch the MOD estate work in your region — the unglamorous services contracts are the realistic first win.
- Register on two or three prime contractor supplier portals and attend one supplier engagement event.
- If you have genuinely novel technology, look at DASA competitions rather than tenders.
- Expect the first year to be about visibility and accreditation rather than revenue.
Keeping an eye on all of it
TendersHub tracks 10,500+ live UK tenders including MOD notices from the Defence Sourcing Portal alongside Find a Tender and Contracts Finder — so the below-threshold estate and services work, which is where most companies genuinely start, does not sit unnoticed on a portal you only remember to check quarterly.