ORD PABAC2-046-08-23 Rifle 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifle System Acquisition Project of the Philippine Army

The Philippine Army has raised for a requirement for more 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifles (DMR), many of which are needed as the service moves to improve its firepower capability, while also replacing older DMRs.

With the success on the procurement of more than 800 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifles under the 2nd List of Horizon 1 phase of the Revised AFP Modernization Program, the Philippine Army is now in the process of relying less on the AFP Modernization Program for procurement of small arms, especially with allocation for capital expenditures under the annual budget has increased over the past few years.

In this resource page, we discuss the ORD PABAC2-046-09-22 Rifle, 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifle Acquisition Project which was opened for public tender on September 2022. We expect more similar projects in the future which will have their own resource pages as well.

A SIG Sauer SIG716 G2 DMR.

Project Summary:

Rifle, 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR) System Acquisition Project:

Note: Edited as of 22 September 2023.

* Project Number: ORD PABAC2-046-08-23 (formerly ORD PABAC2-046-09-22)

* End User: Philippine Army (multiple units)

* Quantity: 100 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifles with ILS

* Modernization Phase: GAA2022 Procurement Projects of the Philippine Army

* Project ABC: Php39,338,000.00

* Acquisition Mode: Public Bidding

* Source of Funding: Philippine Army GAA for Fiscal Year 2022 - RA11639

* SARO Release/s: Not applicable (included in Philippine Army's FY2023 budget.

* Winning Proponent: TBC

* Product/s for Delivery: TBC

* Contract Price: TBC

* Residual Amount: TBC

* First post by MaxDefense: 23 April 2023 (this post)

* MaxDefense Searching Hashtag: #PA762DMR2022Acquisition 

* Status: Invitation to Bid released on 19 September 2022. Bidding failed. A new bidding process was initiated in 2023 with a new project number ORD PABAC2-046-08-23 with SOBE scheduled on 31 August 2023, moved to 07 September 2023. The bidding failed again, and now awaiting what the Philippine Army will do.


Overview:

The requirement for 100 new 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifle appears to be a continuation of the Philippine Army's need for more of such weapons, as it plans to provide DMRs to more units considering it has already provided enough for the Special Operations units like the Light Reaction Regiment, Special Forces Regiment (Airborne) and the Scout Ranger Regiment.

This is especially needed as many regular infantry units are still using converted M14 7.62mm battle rifles as designated marksman rifles, and are in need of replacement.

Based on the Technical Specification of the 7.62mm DMRs, the requirement is for an AR-15-based gas piston-type platform, with a heavy match-grade barrel chambered to fire 7.62x51mm NATO rounds. 

SIG Sauer through its local representative Intrade Asia Pacific is believed to have won the tender with the SIG 712G2 DMR. Photo credits to Ricardo Torres @ Pinterest.

It appears to be similar to the previous requirement under the previous project from Horizon 1, which is not surprising to keep standardization.

According to our parent page MaxDefense Philippines, its source from the defense industry pointed that it is highly likely that the same company and product won the tender for this project, which is Intrade Asia Pacific, which represent SIG Sauer in the Philippines, and that the SIG 716 G2 DMR may was offered.

If correct, this means that the Philippine Army will be getting the same rifle as before, and keeping its rifles standard.

The Philippine Army's SIG 716 G2 DMR, 800+ units which were procured as part of 2nd List of Horizon 1. Photo credits to MaxDefense Philippines.

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U P D A T E S:
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10 March 2023:

The Philippine Army has confirmed that the bidding for the Rifle, 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifle project has failed, and a new bidding process would be started at a later date.

It appears that there was a proponent who made it to certain level of discussion but an agreement was not reached, thus the bidding failure only happening in 2023.

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20 August 2023:

Another bidding attempt was raised by the Philippine Army's PABAC2, this time with a submission date of 31 August 2023, and later moved to 07 September 2023.

The specifications and budget remains the same, but the project number was renamed to reflect it being done in 2023.

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22 September 2023:

The Philippine Army has confirmed that the re-bidding attempt for the project has failed, and the announcement was made only a few days after closing the tender.

This means that nobody submitted a bid, and we expect the Philippine Army to review its bidding requirements to and see if adjustments are needed especially with regards to target dates, document requirements and package inclusions.


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First edit and release: 23 April 2023
Copyright MaxDefense Philippines / Philippine Defense Resource