§ 4212. Risk management and mitigation in major defense acquisition programs and major systems

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(a)Requirement.— The Secretary of Defense shall ensure that the initial acquisition strategy (required under section 4211 of this title) approved by the milestone decision authority and any subsequent revisions include the following:

(1)A comprehensive approach for managing and mitigating risk (including technical, cost, and schedule risk) during each of the following periods or when determined appropriate by the milestone decision authority:

(A)The period preceding engineering manufacturing development, or its equivalent.

(B)The period preceding initial production.

(C)The period preceding full-rate production.

(2)An identification of the major sources of risk in each of the periods listed in paragraph

(1)to improve programmatic decisionmaking and appropriately minimize and manage program concurrency.

(b)Approach to Manage and Mitigate Risks.— The comprehensive approach to manage and mitigate risk included in the acquisition strategy for purposes of subsection (a)(1) shall, at a minimum, include consideration of risk mitigation techniques such as the following:

(1)Prototyping (including prototyping at the system, subsystem, or component level and competitive prototyping, where appropriate) and, if prototyping at either the system, subsystem, or component level is not used, an explanation of why it is not appropriate.

(2)Modeling and simulation, the areas that modeling and simulation will assess, and identification of the need for development of any new modeling and simulation tools in order to support the comprehensive strategy.

(3)Technology demonstrations and decision points for disciplined transition of planned technologies into programs or the selection of alternative technologies.

(4)Multiple design approaches.

(5)Alternative designs, including any designs that meet requirements but do so with reduced performance.

(6)Phasing of program activities or related technology development efforts in order to address high-risk areas as early as feasible.

(7)Manufacturability and industrial base availability.

(8)Independent risk element assessments by outside subject matter experts.

(9)Schedule and funding margins for identified risks.

(c)Preference for Prototyping.— To the maximum extent practicable and consistent with the economical use of available financial resources, the milestone decision authority for each major defense acquisition program shall ensure that the acquisition strategy for the program provides for—

(1)the production of competitive prototypes at the system or subsystem level before Milestone B approval; or

(2)if the production of competitive prototypes is not practicable, the production of single prototypes at the system or subsystem level.

(d)Concurrency Defined.— In this section, the term “concurrency” means, with respect to an acquisition strategy, the combination or overlap of program phases or activities.

(Added Pub. L. 114–92, div. A, title VIII, § 822(a)(1), Nov. 25, 2015, 129 Stat. 900, § 2431b; amended Pub. L. 114–328, div. A, title X, § 1081(a)(7), Dec. 23, 2016, 130 Stat. 2417; renumbered § 4212 and amended Pub. L. 116–283, div. A, title XVIII, § 1847(b)(3), Jan. 1, 2021, 134 Stat. 4254.)

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