Ukraine Saves 16% on Largest 155mm Shell Contract, Funds More Ammo

Ukraine's Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced a 16% saving on the largest 155mm shell contract, secured through a competitive tender process. The Defense Procurement Agency, «State Operator of Rear», signed contracts with six manufacturers for this significant batch of long-range shells, described as «one of the front's biggest requests».

The competitive process, featuring multiple participants and transparent conditions, saved millions of dollars. These savings will fund tens of thousands of additional shells beyond the initially planned quantity. Fedorov did not disclose the names of the six winning manufacturers.

Fedorov stated that the next categories for competitive procurement scaling will be FPV, mid-strike, and deep-strike drones. From this summer, Ukraine will transition to tender procedures across all defense procurement, with parts of the process utilizing the Prozorro electronic transparency platform, while security constraints will determine public visibility.

This new competitive procurement framework was developed to address documented corruption in Ukrainian defense procurement, aiming to reduce dependence on single suppliers and distribute large purchases among multiple manufacturers. The 155mm contract serves as the first large-scale test of this model.