How Do You Run a Defence Bid Across TED, Find a Tender, and Prozorro
One defence contract can force you to submit in three languages, on three portals, under three legal regimes. A tender published on TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) runs under Directive 2009/81/EC. The same capability advertised in Britain sits on Find a Tender under the Procurement Act 2023. In Ukraine it appears on Prozorro under Ukrainian procurement law. Miss the language rule on any one of them and your bid is non-compliant before anyone reads the price.
AD VERBUM is an EU-hosted translation company that pairs a client-tuned LLM with certified defence linguists to produce tender documentation for TED, Find a Tender, and Prozorro, under AQAP 2110 and ISO 27001. We run cross-border defence bids most weeks, so here's the sequence we use, and the four places we watch it break.
Three portals, one bid, three rulebooks
TED is the EU's official notice board for public contracts. It publishes above-threshold notices in all 24 official EU languages, but that on-page rendering is machine translation for discovery, not a legal bid document. Directive 2009/81/EC leaves the language of the bid to member-state law, so a French contracting authority can require the technical file in French and a Polish one in Polish. Our guide to who translates EU defence tenders under Directive 2009/81/EC sets out the member-state pattern.
Find a Tender replaced TED for United Kingdom procurement, and since 24 February 2025 UK defence contracts run under the Procurement Act 2023, published through the Central Digital Platform. Prozorro is Ukraine's open e-procurement system. State contracts run in Ukrainian, while EBRD, World Bank, and EU-funded reconstruction projects often accept English documentation. Before you translate a word, know which defence tender documents need certified national-language translation.
How to run a defence bid across the three portals
Run every cross-portal bid in the same order.
Locate the notice and pin the regime. Confirm whether it sits on TED (Directive 2009/81/EC), Find a Tender (Procurement Act 2023), or Prozorro (Ukrainian law). Each sets its own deadlines, notice types, and language rule.
Read the notice in its source language and extract the exact language requirement. The notice, not your assumption, states which language the bid response, technical specifications, and supporting certificates must be in.
Screen the technical file for controlled content before it leaves your building. Under Regulation (EU) 2021/821 Article 2, sending controlled technical data to an unvetted linguist can count as technical assistance, a transfer that needs authorisation from BAFA, DGA, or UAMA. See how sending a technical manual to a translator can breach EU dual-use rules.
Build one terminology base for all three bids. Lock the equipment names, part numbers, and standard clauses once, so the Polish, French, and Ukrainian versions stay consistent with each other and with the source. This is where terminology governance earns its cost.
Translate with certified sector linguists on secure infrastructure, not the portal's own tool. TED's machine translation helps you decide whether to bid; it does not produce the certified national-language document the authority scores. We keep controlled files on EU-hosted secure enterprise infrastructure.
Assemble and submit to each portal's format and deadline. Match the file types, notice references, and electronic-signature rules of TED, Find a Tender, or Prozorro before the clock runs out.
Where it goes wrong
Four failures account for most rejected cross-border defence bids.
Treating the TED machine translation as the bid. It's a discovery aid in 24 languages, not a legal submission. The certified national-language file is a separate job.
Emailing the technical file to a translator without an export-control check. That single step can be the controlled-technology transfer under Regulation (EU) 2021/821 Article 2, which is why dual-use controlled technical data translation belongs inside a vetted workflow, not an ad hoc export-controlled email.
Assuming UK rules still mirror the EU. Since 24 February 2025 the Procurement Act 2023 governs UK defence contracts through Find a Tender, and the old Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 are repealed.
Underestimating Prozorro's mechanics. Foreign bidders register through an accredited platform and need a Ukrainian qualified electronic signature or an authorised representative, and state contracts run in Ukrainian.
Our defence tender translation services
Our translation services for regulated sectors run on ISO 27001 and ISO 42001 certified, EU-hosted infrastructure, with no reliance on public cloud tooling for core processing. Every project runs through our AI+HUMAN hybrid workflow: we ingest client Translation Memories and Term Bases first, our proprietary LLM-based LangOps System generates output constrained by client terminology on client-tuned open-weight models, and our certified subject-matter experts review for technical accuracy and regulatory compliance. Our QA is aligned to ISO 17100 and ISO 18587, with sector-specific requirements such as AQAP 2110 quality assurance and Regulation 2021/821 controlled-data handling applied where relevant. We serve Life Sciences, Legal, Finance, Defense, and Manufacturing clients across 150+ languages with 3,500+ subject-matter linguists. For teams managing audit-sensitive content, contact us to discuss your security and compliance requirements directly.
FAQ
Which language does a defence tender on TED have to be in?
Directive 2009/81/EC leaves the bid language to member-state law, so the contracting authority sets it in the notice. In practice you submit the bid response, technical specifications, and certificates in the official language of the contracting state, drawn from the 24 official EU languages.
Is TED's machine translation enough to submit a bid?
No. TED renders notices in 24 languages so you can find and assess opportunities, but that output is not a certified bid document. The national-language submission the authority scores is a separate, certified translation.
What changed for UK defence bids under the Procurement Act 2023?
From 24 February 2025 UK defence and security contracts run under the Procurement Act 2023, published through Find a Tender and the Central Digital Platform. The Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 are repealed, so the UK regime no longer mirrors EU procurement rules.
Can foreign companies bid on Prozorro?
Yes. Foreign bidders register through an accredited Prozorro platform and use a Ukrainian qualified electronic signature or an authorised representative. State contracts run in Ukrainian, while EBRD, World Bank, and EU-funded reconstruction tenders often accept English documentation.
Can sending a tender's technical file to a translator breach export controls?
It can. Regulation (EU) 2021/821 Article 2 treats transmitting controlled technical data, including by electronic means, as technical assistance that may need authorisation. National authorities such as BAFA, DGA, and UAMA enforce it, so screen the file and use vetted linguists.
Why use certified linguists instead of the portal tools?
Portal tools translate for discovery, not for compliance. Certified linguists working to ISO 17100, with AQAP 2110 quality assurance and ISO 27001 data security, produce the traceable, national-language document a defence authority will accept and audit.
