Business & Commercial

Introduction

"Equipping the Armed Forces" is the Defence Procurement Agency (DPA)'s central mission. It procures new equipment for the Armed Forces and provides other procurement-related services to its customers. Based at Abbey Wood in north Bristol, the DPA was launched on 1 April 1999 as an Executive Agency of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), replacing the MoD Procurement Executive. Summarised, the DPA's objectives are to:

 - buy weapons systems and platforms and manage major upgrades

 - deliver projects within defined performance, time and cost bands

 - provide certain procurement-related services, guidance and standards

 - participate in the UK’s military nuclear programmes

With an annual budget of £6 billion, the DPA is the single biggest purchaser of manufactured goods in the UK. At any one time, its 4,300 staff are managing more than 13,000 contracts, ranging from the purchase of submarines to small parts for a field radio. For the financial year 2002/2003 the DPA delivered equipment to the Armed Forces valued at over £3.6 billion. New equipment that entered service during the year included the Apache Attack Helicopter, HIPPO - The first Beach Recovery Vehicle, Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (CATT), Merlin Hc Mk3 Helicopter, Merlin ASW Helicopter and Auxiliary Oiler - RFA Wave Knight, the first of two new 30,000t fast fleet tankers.  

Last Updated: 8 Oct 04