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TITLE VIII--ACQUISITION POLICY, ACQUISITION MANAGEMENT, AND RELATED MATTERS

Subtitle A--Acquisition Policy and Management

P. L. 114-

House Conference Report. 114-270

SEC. 810. Review of time-based requirements process and budgeting and acquisition systems.

(a) Time-based requirements process.—The Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff shall review the requirements process with the goal of establishing an agile and streamlined system that develops requirements that provide stability and foundational direction for acquisition programs and shall determine the advisability of providing a time-based or phased distinction between capabilities needed to be deployed urgently, within 2 years, within 5 years, and longer than 5 years.

(b) Budgeting and acquisition systems.—The Secretary of Defense shall review and ensure that the acquisition and budgeting systems are structured to meet time-based or phased requirements in a manner that is predictable, cost effective, and efficient and takes advantage of emerging technological developments.
 
Review of time-based requirements process and budgeting and acquisition systems (sec. 810)

The Senate amendment contained a provision (sec. 809) that would require the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to review the requirements process to provide for a time-based or phased distinction between capabilities needed to be deployed urgently, within 2 years, within 5 years, and longer than 5 years.

The House bill contained no similar provision.

The House recedes with an amendment to clarify the scope of the review.


Senate Report 114-49 to accompany S. 1376 as it was reported out of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Review of time-based requirements process and budgeting and acquisition systems (sec. 809)

The committee recommends a provision that would require the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to review the requirements process to provide for a time- based or phased distinction between capabilities needed to be deployed urgently, within 2 years, within 5 years, and longer than 5 years. While the use of rapid acquisition techniques has led to the establishment of a rapid requirements process, there is no such process that could lead to capabilities being pursued in less than 5 years. This 5-year time is significant in that this was the average time to achieve Initial Operational Capability for many defense programs until the 1970s and is the time it takes for equivalent commercial programs to be deployed today. A recent Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency study found that the current requirements process may be a significant hurdle to the Department being able to conduct short, iterative development and fielding cycles and innovate like the more agile sectors of the commercial market. The committee intends this provision to be linked to others in the Act concerning the use of alternative paths to acquire critical national security capabilities and the middle tier of acquisition for rapid prototyping and rapid fielding. The committee's intent is that these reviews and authorities will offer an opportunity to change the paradigm of defense acquisition from a focus on decade's long development cycles to agile improvement with multiple iterations of capabilities within that same timeframe.

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