The Royal Navy, part of the UK Ministry of Defence, intends to award a Single Source Non-Qualifying Defence Contract valued at up to £1,500,000 (ex VAT) with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Limited for a period of [7] months for the delivery of work to undertake trials/experiments in order to demonstrate a threshold capability for a Short Take off and Landing Uncrewed Air Vehicle (UAV).
General Atomics unveiled the Mojave drone with STOL capability in December 2021, which is likely to be employed for the demonstration. The Mojave is based on the company’s MQ-1C Gray Eagle-ER unmanned aircraft, featuring the avionics and flight control system of the MQ-9 Reaper.
In accordance with regulation 4 of The Defence and Security Public Contracts (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019/697) this procurement falls to be regulated under the provisions of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 as amended (in particular by SI 2019/697 and SI 2020/1450). Prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union is no longer appropriate.
It is considered that the award of the contract without prior publication of a contract notice in the UK e-notification service (as required by the relevant legislation) is lawful in accordance with regulation 16(1)(a)(ii) because the works, supplies or services can be supplied only by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Limited as competition is absent for technical grounds.
The contract will enable work to be undertaken as a proof of concept utilising existing technology/services provided by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Limited in order to carry out experiments that will determine the future scope to address a number of capability problem sets and will support future investment decisions.
In addition and in the alternative, the contract is for research and development services within regulation 16(1)(c).
Source: Government of Wales