§3604 Program to accelerate the procurement and fielding of innovative technologies

Summary

The Secretary of Defense must create a competitive, merit-based program, subject to available funding, to speed up buying and using new technologies that cut acquisition or life-cycle costs, reduce technical risks, make testing faster and more complete, and quickly support defense missions. The Secretary must publish rules that at least require one or more calls for proposals, give priority to small business concerns (definition in the Small Business Act) and nontraditional defense contractors (definition elsewhere in law), limit to not more than two calls per fiscal year for entities that, during the one-year period before the call, did not have DoD contracts with aggregate obligations over $400,000,000, and set a review process by the Secretary and each military department secretary to pick the most promising, cost-effective proposals and buy the work by contract, cooperative agreement, other transaction authority, or another suitable method. Each award must be at least $10,000,000 and not more than $50,000,000 unless the Secretary approves a larger amount. The Secretary cannot give funding until a plan for collecting program data is finished and sent to the congressional defense committees. The Department must collect and study data to share best practices, inform implementation and policy, and report to those committees. Reports are due March 1 and September 1 each year after enactment. The Secretary must also tell the congressional defense committees within 30 days after funding an awarded proposal.