The Portuguese Navy has awarded ENTEC Evotec AS, a maker of winches and handling systems based in Ulsteinvik on Norway’s west coast, a contract worth NOK 16.25 million to supply oceanographic instrumentation cables for the NRP D. João II, the new ship it is having built for uncrewed systems and ocean science. The award was published in Tenders Electronic Daily (TED), the EU’s public procurement journal, on 9 October as notice 697932-2026, under the title “Fornecimento de cabos de instrumentação oceanográfica - NRP D. João II” (supply of oceanographic instrumentation cables). At the European Central Bank’s reference rate for that day, NOK 10.7155 per euro, the contract is worth about €1.52 million.
What the notice says
The Navy bought the cables through a negotiated procedure without prior call for competition, received one tender and chose on price alone. As justification for the direct award, the notice cites exclusive rights: it gives the reason “Direitos Exclusivos” and uses the EU form’s code that TED displays as “Service contract awarded on the basis of an exclusive right”, although the purchase itself is classified as a supply contract. The single tender was submitted electronically by a company registered in another European Economic Area country, and the winning tender declared no subcontracting. The notice gives the value, NOK 16,250,000 excluding VAT, in Norwegian kroner, classifies the purchase under the EU procurement code for optical-fibre cables (CPV 32562000) and names the Lisbon naval base at Alfeite, in Almada, as the place of performance. It also states that the project is fully or partially financed with EU funds, without naming the programme.
Several things are not in the notice. It gives no date for the award decision or for the signature of the contract, no duration and no quantities, and it does not say which instruments the cables will serve or what the exclusive rights cover. The notice was sent for publication on 7 October. As of 12 October, the news page of Evotec’s website carried no announcement of the contract.
What the cables may be for
The notice does not say. The Navy describes the D. João II as a platform for environmental monitoring, research and prospecting of the seabed, and the collection and processing of ocean data, designed to operate uncrewed aerial, surface and underwater systems. According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a CTD — a package of electronic instruments that measure the conductivity, temperature and depth of seawater — is common equipment in oceanography; on exploration vessels it is often attached to a metal frame called a rosette that is lowered into the water via a cable, and some CTDs can transmit data back to the ship in real time. Evotec says research vessels “rely on precise, reliable handling systems for safe deployment and retrieval of instruments and equipment”; its range for research ships includes CTD winches, launch and recovery systems (LARS) for CTDs and for autonomous underwater vehicles, A-frames and streamer winches. ECO, the Portuguese business daily, has separately reported that the Navy expects the ship’s missions to include stepping up the surveillance of submarine cables.
The ship
The D. João II, which the Navy calls a Plataforma Naval Multifuncional (multifunctional naval platform), was developed by the Navy in partnership with the Dutch group Damen, which has built it at its shipyard in Galați, Romania. Damen designates the type MPV 10720; Janes describes it as an MPSS-7000 design. According to the Navy, the construction contract was signed on 24 November 2023 at the Navy Museum, the first steel was cut at Galați on 3 October 2024, the date Janes gives for the laying down, and the ship was floated out on 7 April 2026. Janes gives an estimated full-load displacement of 7,000 tonnes, a length of 107.6 metres, a beam of 20 metres, a 94 by 11 metre flight deck and 650 square metres of deck space for up to twelve 20-foot containers or 18 wheeled vehicles. ECO reports an endurance of up to 45 days and accommodation for a crew of 48 plus 42 scientists and uncrewed-systems operators.
On 30 June the Navy received a certificate of completion of construction from the classification society Lloyd’s Register, which it said met the progress milestone set under Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) and secured the project’s eligibility for that funding. At that point the ship was in the commissioning phase for its systems and equipment, with its future crew in training; final delivery to the Navy is expected in April 2027, the Navy said on 3 July. When the contract was signed, the Navy had expected the ship to enter service in the second half of 2026. Janes reported on 13 July that harbour acceptance trials are planned for late 2026 and sea trials for very early 2027, with delivery and initial operational capability in the second quarter of 2027. According to ECO, the PRR is providing €94.5 million of an estimated total investment of €132 million.
The supplier
ENTEC Evotec was founded on 18 April 2006 and registered as Evomec AS; it was named Kongsberg Evotec AS from 2011 to 2019 and took its current name in July 2022, according to the Brønnøysund Register Centre, which lists 100 employees at Storehølvegen 9 in Ulsteinvik and classifies the company as a manufacturer of lifting and handling equipment. Its accounts for 2025 show operating revenue of NOK 554.4 million, up 48 percent from NOK 374.0 million in 2024, an operating profit of NOK 41.5 million and a net profit of NOK 32.1 million. The Navy contract is equivalent to about 3 percent of its 2025 revenue (NorthSouth HQ calculation). The company belongs to ENTEC Group, a holding company at the same address whose website presents Evotec’s winches, booms, spooling devices and cranes alongside Brimer, a maker of corrosion-free composite products and water and wastewater systems.
In May, NHO Møre og Romsdal, the regional office of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise, described Evotec as a maker of winches, deck cranes, A-frames and LARS systems with around 200 employees, whose capacity in Ulsteinvik was fully used and which had bought production capacity in Serbia. “The acquisition gives us significantly increased capacity, better control over the value chain and access to a skilled workforce with high technical expertise,” group chief executive Jogeir Romestrand told NHO (NorthSouth HQ translation). A search of the nif.pt company database found no Portuguese subsidiary or branch of ENTEC or Evotec; the contract was awarded to the Norwegian company directly.
Nordic suppliers and the Navy
A NorthSouth HQ search of TED found 30 contract award notices published since January 2024 in which a buyer in Portugal named a tenderer registered in Sweden, Norway, Denmark or Finland. Eleven come from EU agencies based in Lisbon, ten of them from the European Maritime Safety Agency, seven are multi-country awards and twelve were placed by Portuguese buyers alone. The ENTEC Evotec award is the only one from the Navy. The only other Portuguese defence buyer on the list is the Army General Staff, which awarded Saab AB €1.25 million for a tactical engagement simulator in a notice published on 3 July 2026. In ocean science, the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) awarded Ocean Infinity AB €21.76 million in October 2024 for survey services for a 2025 campaign to collect geophysical and geotechnical data, and the University of Porto bought an autonomous surface vehicle from Norway’s Maritime Robotics AS for €530,000 in a notice published in December 2025.
The search covers only companies registered in the Nordic countries. Nordic groups also sell to the Navy through Portuguese subsidiaries: Wärtsilä Portugal has won six Navy awards worth €2.35 million since 2024, as NorthSouth HQ reported in September. In the same month Nordic navies and companies formed their own task group, “Valhalla”, at REPMUS 26, the Navy’s uncrewed-systems exercise in Tróia; Janes describes the D. João II as a dedicated platform for maritime unmanned-systems operations. Until the ship’s delivery, set for April 2027, the Navy’s purchases for it can be followed in TED, alongside the procurement planned under Portugal’s €5.84 billion SAFE defence plan. Nordic companies already active in Portugal are listed in the NorthSouth HQ directory of Nordic companies in Portugal.