The Danish Ministry of Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation (DALO) has issued a request for information (RfI) related to ammunition production, stockpiling and management in Denmark, DALO announced on its website on 29 January 2024.
The RfI follows the announcement, on 07 October 2023 that the Danish Ministry of Defence (MoD) has re-acquired the industrial area known as Krudten (‘The Powder Mill’) near the village of Elling, in northern Jutland. This was, until 2008, a government-owned and -operated ammunition production facility named Ammunitionsarsenalet (‘The Ammunition Arsenal’): the only one of its kind in Denmark. In 2008 the facility was sold to the Spanish ammunition manufacturer Expal, which operated it under the name Denex until 2020, when it was shut down and disbanded. This effectively meant the end of military ammunition production in Denmark.
The area and infrastructure was then sold by Expal to a group of investors; it is presumably from them that the Danish MoD has now re-acquired the facility. At the time of the purchase, the Danish MoD stated that the facility was re-acquired in order to restart national ammunition production in Denmark as a direct consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the changed security situation in Europe. The new DALO RfI can be seen as a further step in this direction and reveals something of the MoD and DALO thinking in this regard.
The RfI is in three parts, dealing with three separate elements of ammunition production and management:
- Part 1 specifies that the manufacturer “shall establish and operate a filling facility or other production facility for large-calibre ammunition at Krudten, addressing bottlenecks in production or, as appropriate, elsewhere in Denmark”. In addition to production, this part of the RfI includes the potential for ammunition storage in Denmark, to be managed by the contractor. Preference is expressed for a contractor from one of the Nordic countries. The focus on a filling/casting plant, as opposed to metal parts production, for example, is because DALO has identified shell-filling capacity as a bottleneck in current production capacities.
- Part 2 concerns the establishment of small arms ammunition production in Denmark, again also with the potential for ammunition storage. Specifically, this part of the RfI is intended to assess “market interest in establishing and operating a production facility for small-calibre ammunition at Krudten or, as appropriate, elsewhere in Denmark”. It further specifies that a Danish (national) small arms ammunition production company is required, potentially in collaboration with a strategic partner. This part of the RfI defines “small arms ammunition” as calibres from 5.56 mm NATO (5.56×45 mm) up to 12.7 mm NATO (12.7×99 mm) and further specifies that “The production is not to be exclusively for supplies to the Danish Defence.” This indicates that the Danish MoD may be considering sales to the civilian and/or export markets, most probably in order to partially offset the cost of the project.
- Part 3: This part if the RfI concerns the establishment of an ammunition stockpiling and management enterprise in Denmark. In this concept the contractor would establish and maintain minimum stockpiles of ammunition in Denmark to “ensure security of supply for the most critical ammunitions for DALO” as well as “timely access to required levels of supply within selected and relevant types of ammunition”.
Two interesting conclusions may be drawn from the RfI. One is that the Danish MoD prefers to co-operate with national and regional contractors. This is unsurprising considering security concerns, as well as the existing defence ties between the Nordic countries. However, since the RfI allows for co-operation with non-national and non-Nordic businesses, it is also clear that the Danish MoD is aware that the required capabilities and capacities may not be available locally.
It is also interesting to note the proposed high degree of co-operation with and reliance on private industry, not only in terms of ammunition production but also in terms of storage and stockpile management. This again may reflect an acknowledgment on the side of the MoD that the required capabilities and capacities are no longer available in the MoD organisation itself.
The deadline for responses to the RfI is 1 March 2024 at 1300 Central European Time and, based on the received responses, DALO is expected to issue one or more requests for proposals for the above requirements.
