ORD PABAC2-023-24 Rifle 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifle System (2024) 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 PABAC2-023-24 Rifle, 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifle Acquisition Project which was opened for public tender on November 2023 as a replacement to the earlier ORD PABAC2-046-08-23 Rifle 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifle System Acquisition Project. 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 (2024) Acquisition Project:

Note: Edited as of 09 June 2024.

* Project Number: ORD PABAC2-023-24, changed to ORD-FP-009-04-24

* End User: Philippine Army (multiple units)

* Quantity: 310 units of 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifles with ILS

* Modernization Phase: GAA FY2024 Procurement Projects of the Philippine Army

* Project ABC: Php237,150,000.00

* 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: SIG Sauer USA through Intrade Asia Pacific

* Product/s for Delivery: SIG 716G2 7.62mm DMR

* Contract Price: Php78,313,216.80

* Residual Amount: Php158,836,783.20

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

* MaxDefense Searching Hashtag: #PA762DMR2022Acquisition 

* Status: Project replaces ORD PABAC2-046-08-23 Rifle 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifle System Acquisition Project calling for 100 rifles, which failed and not re-tendered in its form. Invitation to Bid released on 18 November 2023, with SOBE scheduled on 12 December 2023, and moved to 19 December 2023. Bidding failed as of 28 January 2024. Re-bidding was opened on 31 January 2024, with SOBE tentatively scheduled on 21 February 2024. Bidding failed and project cancelled, restarted as ORD-FP-009-04-24. Project was finally awarded to SIG Sauer USA through its local representative Intrade Asia Pacific, with the contract signed and Notice to Proceed released as of 03 June 2024. SIG Sauer is supplying its SIG 716G2 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifle.


Overview:

The Philippine Army originally tendered for 100 new 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifle using its capital outlay funds for FY2022, as 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.

The earlier attempt to procure 100 rifles failed, and the Philippine Army decided to restart the project, but this time for the procurement of 310 rifles using funds for is capital outlay for FY2024.

The 7.62mm DMR is very much 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.

After several failed biddings, the project was cancelled and restarted under a different project number and procurement was changed, with the project awarded and contracted to SIG Sauer USA through its local representative Intrade Asia Pacific, which was offering its SIG 716G2 7.62mm designated marksman rifle.

The project's Notice to Proceed was released on 03 June 2024

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 100 units of 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 for 100 units of 7.62mm DMRs 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 ORD PABAC2-046-08-23 Rifle 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifle System Acquisition 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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20 November 2023:

The Philippine Army has restarted the acquisition of Rifle, 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifles (DMRs) under a new project ORD PABAC2-023-24, denoting that this will be using the Philippine Army's FY2024 capital outlay funds.

The quantity and budget was also revised, from 100 units for Php39,338,000.00, to 310 units for Php249,998,000.00.

This means the average allocation has risen from Php393,380.00 per rifle set, to Php806,445.16 per rifle set. 

Sources confirmed that the earlier tender for 100 units failed as no proponent submitted a tender, most likely due to the allocated budget being low considering the requirements asked by the Philippine Army.

The new budget might be too large as well, although being a competitive tender, there is a huge chance that the residual from the project could be significant, which means the money will return to the Philippine Army and could be re-used for other projects.

The tender was opened on 18 November 2023, with Pre-Bidding Conference scheduled on 29 November 2023, and SOBE scheduled on 12 December 2023.

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12 December 2023:

The project's SOBE was moved to 19 December 2023, with no reason provided.

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04 February 2024:

The bidding was declared a failure as of 28 January 2024, although it was immediately restarted on 31 January 2024, with the SOBE tentatively scheduled on 21 February 2024.

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09 Juney 2024:

The Philippine Army has released a Notice to Proceed for the project, which was awarded to SIG Sauer USA. Sources confirmed that the contract was signed recently, with Intradr Asia Pacific being the local representative of SIG Sauer.

The company offered their SIG 716 G2 7 62mm designated marksman rifle, which is the same to the ones acquired previously. 

This means commonality has been allowed for efficiency and ease of sustainment, rather than introducing another rifle model for the same role.

It is expected that SIG Sauer will deliver the rifles before the end of the year.

Since there is a huge residual amount worth more than the contract price, it is possible that the Philippine Army may opt to use the savings to acquire more SIG 716 G2 under a follow-on order, which is alllowed under the current Government Procurement Act.

On average, the contract cost per rifle is around Php253,000 each. Based on that, the residual amount is more than enough to procure another 620 units of the same rifle, which means the Philippine Army can hasten the replacement of the M14 7.62mm designated marksman rifle in its units, or allow special units to have their DMRs replaced or complemented by the SIG 716G2.

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First edit and release: 04 February 2024
Copyright MaxDefense Philippines / Philippine Defense Resource