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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.
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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. |
