Indefeasible Right of Use Leases

[MrProliferation]

Does anyone out there know if there are any legal decisions on where/how indefeasible right of use (IRU) leases would be treated? Or, barring legal decisions, would anyone care to offer an opinion on what FAR/DFARS parts would apply to it?

Specifically I am trying to figure out if one would view this as an "investment" and thus a procurement-funded type acquisition or one funded with sustainment-type funding. I am trying to look at all options for an acquisition at the very theoretical phase right now and I don't know whether IRU could be considered a viable multi-year contracting approach as it is, in a sense, an asset that the Government would not own but would have unlimited use rights or whether it would be viewed as more of an operations and sustainment requirement that would have to be done with annual leases. It seems pretty clear to me that an IRU is an investment of a sort as it would grant central management rights, but I have no idea how kosher the basic approach is since it is a lease on a very specific, large, and long-term kind of lease. I know there have been precedents for doing contracts using IRUs, but I'm not sure how to look at it from an appropriations lens. Certainly the dollar value of it would be high enough to consider it procurement, but at its core its a service requirement that doesn't result in a tangible end item, only complete control over such an item with no long-term ownership rights.

I know this is a very unusual topic and probably more a question about appropriations law and DFMR, but I have searched that document top to bottom and cannot find a lot about leases and thought to check here to see if anyone has any contracting experience with IRUs and/or knows of any case law and precedents regarding them.