HOME  |  CONTENTS  |  DISCUSSIONS  DISCUSSION ARCHIVES  |  BLOG  |  QUICK-KITs|  STATES

Loading

How To Use the NDAA Pages

Back to NDAA Contents

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

Subtitle C — Provisions Relating to Major Defense Acquisition Programs

P. L. 115-

House Conference Report. 115-404

SEC. 834. REQUIREMENT TO EMPHASIZE RELIABILITY AND MAINTAINABILITY IN WEAPON SYSTEM DESIGN.

(a) Sustainment Factors In Weapon System Design.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 144 of title 10, United States Code, as amended by section 832, is further amended by adding at the end the following new section:

Ҥ 2443. Sustainment factors in weapon system design

“(a) In General.—The Secretary of Defense shall ensure that the defense acquisition system gives ample emphasis to sustainment factors, particularly those factors that are affected principally by the design of a weapon system, in the development of a weapon system.

“(b) Requirements Process.—The Secretary shall ensure that reliability and maintainability are included in the performance attributes of the key performance parameter on sustainment during the development of capabilities requirements.

“(c) Solicitation And Award Of Contracts.—

“(1) REQUIREMENT.—The program manager of a weapon system shall include in the solicitation for and terms of a covered contract for the weapon system clearly defined and measurable requirements for engineering activities and design specifications for reliability and maintainability.

“(2) EXCEPTION.—If the program manager determines that engineering activities and design specifications for reliability or maintainability should not be a requirement in a covered contract or a solicitation for such a contract, the program manager shall document in writing the justification for the decision.

“(3) SOURCE SELECTION CRITERIA.—The Secretary shall ensure that sustainment factors, including reliability and maintainability, are given ample emphasis in the process for source selection. The Secretary shall encourage the use of objective reliability and maintainability criteria in the evaluation of competitive proposals.

“(d) Contract Performance.—

“(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall ensure that the Department of Defense uses best practices for responding to the positive or negative performance of a contractor in meeting the sustainment requirements of a covered contract for a weapon system. The Secretary shall encourage the use of incentive fees and penalties as appropriate and authorized in paragraph (2) in all covered contracts for weapons systems.

“(2) AUTHORITY FOR INCENTIVE FEES AND PENALTIES.—The Secretary of Defense is authorized to include in any covered contract provisions for the payment of incentive fees to the contractor based on achievement of design specification requirements for reliability and maintainability of weapons systems under the contract, or the imposition of penalties to be paid by the contractor to the Government for failure to achieve such design specification requirements. Information about such fees or penalties shall be included in the solicitation for any covered contract that includes such fees or penalties.

“(3) MEASUREMENT OF RELIABILITY AND MAINTAINABILITY.—In carrying out paragraph (2), the program manager shall base determinations of a contractor’s performance on reliability and maintainability data collected during the program. Such data collection and associated evaluation metrics shall be described in detail in the covered contract. To the maximum extent practicable, such data shall be shared with appropriate contractor and government organizations.

“(4) NOTIFICATION.—The Secretary of Defense shall notify the congressional defense committees upon entering into a covered contract that includes incentive fees or penalties authorized in paragraph (2).

“(e) Covered Contract Defined.—In this section, the term ‘covered contract’, with respect to a weapon system, means a contract—

“(1) for the engineering and manufacturing development of a weapon system, including embedded software; or

“(2) for the production of a weapon system, including embedded software.”.

(2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections at the beginning of subchapter I of such chapter, as amended by section 832, is further amended by adding at the end the following new item:

“2443. Sustainment factors in weapon system design.”.

(b) Effective Date For Certain Provisions.—Subsections (c) and (d) of section 2443 of title 10, United States Code, as added by subsection (a), shall apply with respect to any covered contract (as defined in that section) for which the contract solicitation is issued on or after the date occurring one year after the date of the enactment of this Act.

(c) Engineering Change Authorized.—Subject to the availability of appropriations, the Secretary of Defense may fund engineering changes to the design of a weapon system in the engineering and manufacturing development phase or in the production phase of an acquisition program to improve reliability or maintainability of the weapon system and reduce projected operating and support costs.

Requirement to emphasize reliability and maintainability in weapon system design (sec. 834)

The House bill contained a provision (sec. 811) that would emphasize reliability and maintainability (R&M) in the system design of a major defense acquisition program (MDAP). First, the section would require the Secretary of Defense to include R&M as attributes of the existing key performance parameter on sustainment during the requirements development process. Second, when contracting for engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) or production of an MDAP, the program manager would be required to include clearly defined and measurable requirements for engineering activities and design specifications for R&M in the contract solicitation and contract terms unless he or she determines R&M should not be a contract requirement. Third, the section would require the Secretary to encourage the use of objective R&M criteria in the source selection process. Fourth, the section would authorize the use of incentive fees and would require the use of recovery options when practicable to encourage contractor performance in R&M for EMD and production contracts. The Department would be able to exercise incentive fees and recovery options until the date of acceptance of the last item under the contract. Finally, the section would establish a program through which program managers would compete for additional funding to invest in R&M during the EMD or production of an MDAP to reduce future operating and support costs.

The Senate amendment contained no similar provision.

The Senate recedes with an amendment that would address technical and implementation concerns and provide additional flexibility to the Secretary of Defense to establish appropriate incentives.

ABOUT  l CONTACT