Justification of the decision of the procurer to award the contract without the prior publication of a contract notice:

The Unmanned Air Systems Team, part of the UK Ministry of Defence (“MoD”), intends to acquire the PROTECTOR Unmanned Aerial System through a Government -Government Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Contract with the US Department of Defence (US DoD). The MoD has conducted a thorough Assessment Phase (AP) which has concluded that the Certifiable Predator B (CPB) is the only system capable of achieving UK Military Type Certification (MTC) and delivering the PROTECTOR requirement within the required timescales. The only means of acquiring the CPB is through a contract with the US DoD. The Defence and Security Public Contract Regulations 2011 do not apply to the proposed contract with the US DoD by virtue of Regulation 7(1)(h)(i).