Sec. 811. Requirement to emphasize reliability and maintainability in weapon system design
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Chapter 144 of title 10, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 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. 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.
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. If the program manager determines that engineering activities and design specifications for reliability or maintainability should not be a requirement in a covered contract, the program manager shall document in writing the justification for the decision.
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. 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 authorized in paragraph
(2)in all covered contracts for weapons systems. The Secretary shall take the necessary actions to enable program offices to execute the recovery options required for each covered contract under paragraph (3). The Secretary of Defense is authorized to pay an incentive fee to a contractor that exceeds the design specification requirements for reliability or maintainability for a covered contract. In exercising the authority provided in this paragraph, the Secretary may provide in the terms of the contract for the payment of an incentive fee to a contractor not later than the date of acceptance of the last item under the contract. Any covered contract for a weapon system shall include terms for amounts to be paid by the contractor to the Government for failure to meet the design specification requirements for reliability and maintainability of the contract by the date of acceptance of the last item under the contract. Terms for such amounts shall be included in the solicitation for the contract. Such terms shall include provisions providing that— the contractor, at no or minimal cost to the Government as determined by the Secretary and included in the contract, identifies the cause of the failure in the system design, develops an engineering change, and, in the case of a production contract, modifies all end items to be delivered or already delivered under the contract; or the contractor provides the Government— a refund in the amount required to identify the cause of the failure in the system design, develop an engineering change, and modify all end items delivered under the contract; and associated technical data required to make the necessary modifications. The Secretary may waive the requirement in subparagraph
(A)with respect to a covered contract if the Secretary determines that such requirement is not in the national security interests of the United States. In carrying out paragraphs
(2)and (3), the program manager shall base determinations of a contractor’s performance on reliability and maintainability data collected during developmental testing and operational testing. In this section, the term covered contract , with respect to a weapon system, means a contract— for the engineering and manufacturing development of a weapon system; or for the production of a weapon system. . The table of sections at the beginning of subchapter I of such chapter is amended by adding at the end the following new item: 2442. Sustainment factors in weapon system design. . Subsections
(c)and
(d)of section 2442 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. The Secretary of Defense shall establish an investment program for funding 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. The program may be funded from the Defense Modernization Account authorized in section 2216 of title 10, United States Code. A program manager may apply for available funds by presenting a business case analysis of the anticipated return on investment of such funds. Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretaries of the military departments, shall provide a briefing to the Committees on Armed Services in the Senate and the House of Representatives on an implementation plan for the program authorized under paragraph (1). The implementation plan shall set forth the process by which program managers apply for available funds, including information on the validation of business case analyses and the evaluation of applications. The briefing shall also include the results of a review of past or existing programs to improve reliability and maintainability and reduce operating and support costs of weapon systems, an assessment of best practices and lessons learned from these programs, and an assessment of the opportunities for consolidation of existing similar programs.