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

Subtitle A — Acquisition Policy and Management

DHNDAA Section

House Armed Services Report 110-652

SEC. 801. ASSESSMENT OF URGENT OPERATIONAL NEEDS FULFILLMENT.

(a) Assessment Required- The Secretary of Defense shall commission a study and report by an independent commission or a federally funded research and development center to assess the effectiveness of the processes used by the Department of Defense for the generation of urgent operational need requirements, and the acquisition processes used to fulfill such requirements. Such assessment shall include the following:

(1) A description and evaluation of the effectiveness of the procedures used to generate, validate, and fulfill warfighting requirements through the urgent operational need and joint urgent operational need processes, including--

(A) the extent to which joint and urgent operational need statements are used to document required capability gaps or are used to request specific acquisition outcomes, such as specific systems or equipment;

(B) the effectiveness of the processes used by each of the military departments and the various elements of the Department of Defense to prioritize and fulfill joint and urgent operational needs, including the rapid acquisition processes of the military departments, as well as the joint improvised explosive device defeat organization and the joint rapid acquisition cell; and

(C) the timeliness and responsiveness of the processes used by the military departments and the various elements of the Department of Defense to review and validate urgent operational needs statements and joint urgent operational needs statements.

(2) An evaluation of the extent to which joint urgent operational need statements are used to avoid using service-specific urgent operational need and acquisition processes or to document non-urgent capability gaps.

(3) An evaluation of the extent to which joint acquisition entities maintain oversight, once a military department or defense agency has been designated as responsible for execution and fielding of a capability in response to a joint urgent operational need statement, including oversight of--

(A) the responsiveness of the military department or agency in execution;

(B) the field performance of the capability delivered in response to the joint urgent operational need statement; and

(C) the concurrent development of a long term acquisition and sustainment strategy.

(8) Recommendations regarding--

(A) best practices and process improvements to ensure that urgent operational needs statements and joint urgent operational needs statements are presented to appropriate authorities for review and validation not later than 60 days after the documents are submitted;

(B) common definitions and standards for urgent operational needs statements and joint urgent operational need statements;

(C) best practices and process improvements for the creation, evaluation, prioritization, and fulfillment of urgent operational need statements and joint urgent operational need statements; and

(D) the extent to which rapid acquisition processes should be consolidated or expanded.

(b) Submission to Congress- Not later than 270 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the congressional defense committees the report resulting from the study conducted pursuant to subsection (a).

NOTE:  The numbered items under (a) go from (3) to (8).

This section would require the Secretary of Defense to commission a study by a federally funded research and development center to assess the effectiveness of the urgent operational need requirements generation processes of the Department of Defense and the acquisition processes used to fulfill such requirements. Within 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the congressional defense committees the written report documenting the key findings and recommendations of the study.

Senate Armed Services Report 110-335

The committee recommends a provision that would require the military departments to ensure that urgent requirements documents developed by operational field commanders are presented to appropriate authorities for review and validation not later than 60 days after the documents are submitted.

Over the last several years, operational commanders in Iraq have identified urgent operational needs for mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles (MRAPs), non-lethal laser dazzlers, and other critical equipment. The committee is aware of allegations that requests for some of these items not only went unmet, but were not even presented to senior officials responsible for validating the requests for periods in excess of a year. While the military services must continue to have the flexibility to balance competing needs and determine what equipment to acquire, urgent operational needs identified by commanders in the field should at a minimum receive a speedy review and response by responsible officials.