§4253 Major defense acquisition programs: submissions to Congress on Milestone C

Summary

Within 15 days after Milestone C approval for a major defense acquisition program, the program’s milestone decision authority must send a short report to the congressional defense committees and, for intelligence work, to the congressional intelligence committees. The report must give the military department’s cost and schedule estimates (including program acquisition unit cost, average procurement unit cost, and total life-cycle cost, plus planned dates for initial operational test and evaluation and initial operational capability). It must also include the independent cost and any independent schedule estimates under section 3221(b)(6) with the same cost and date details. The report must summarize production, manufacturing, and fielding risks and say whether the developmental testing and evaluation done so far is sufficient, including use of data analytics or modeling and simulation. If any committee asks, the milestone decision authority must provide more information or the underlying documents for the report, including the independent cost and schedule estimates and independent technical risk assessments. "Congressional intelligence committees" means the group defined in section 437(c).