Title 10, Armed ForcesRelease 119-110

§1733 Product Support Manager

Title 10 › Subtitle A — General Military Law › PART II — PERSONNEL › CHAPTER 87 — DEFENSE ACQUISITION WORKFORCE › SUBCHAPTER III — CRITICAL ACQUISITION POSITIONS › § 1733

Last updated Sep 23, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of Defense must name a product support manager for every covered system. That person is equal in rank to the program manager and reports to the portfolio acquisition executive. The product support manager must run the support needed to keep the system ready and able to operate for its whole life. They must follow the goals of the defense acquisition system (see section 3102) and create outcome-based support that balances life-cycle cost, readiness, and operational capability. The manager’s duties include making and carrying out the product support strategy (see section 4324); advising the program manager and portfolio executive; working with chief and systems engineers on sustainment planning and cost analysis; using predictive analytics and modeling to raise availability and cut costs; doing business case analyses no later than Milestone B and updating them; recommending how to spread resources among integrators and providers; coordinating support across commands, depots, funds, and commercial partners; fixing supply shortages and qualifying alternative suppliers; and choosing the best integrators and providers. “Best value” is defined in section 3101. The terms covered system, critical readiness items of supply, product support, product support arrangement, product support integrator, and product support provider are defined in section 4324.

Full Legal Text

Title 10, §1733

Armed Forces, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)In General.—
A product support manager is the individual responsible for managing product support required to field and maintain the readiness and operational capability of a covered system throughout the life cycle of the covered system.
(b)Designation.—
The Secretary of Defense shall designate a product support manager for each covered system who shall be coequal with the program manager for such covered system and report directly to the portfolio acquisition executive responsible for such covered system.
(c)Objectives.—
The product support manager shall seek to achieve the objectives of the defense acquisition system established pursuant to section 3102 of this title and shall identify, develop, implement, incentivize, and measure quantifiable best value outcome-based product support that optimizes life-cycle cost, readiness, and operational capability of a covered system.
(d)Specific Responsibilities.—
A product support manager shall be responsible for the following with respect to a covered system:
(1)Developing and executing the product support strategy required under section 4324 of this title.
(2)Providing product support and subject matter expertise to the relevant program manager and portfolio acquisition executive.
(3)Collaborating with chief engineers and systems engineers—
(A)in developing the life-cycle sustainment plan and product support strategy required under section 4324 of this title; and
(B)to analyze the operating and support costs to ensure cost-effective operation, management, and availability of the covered system.
(3)1 Adopting predictive analytics and simulation and modeling tools to improve materiel availability and reliability, increase operational availability rates, and reduce operation and sustainment costs.
(4)Conducting product support business case analyses to provide a structured, iterative methodology to compare and assess the full impact of product support alternatives and provide data-informed recommendations that balance requirements with affordability. Such analyses shall—
(A)enable the development of the product support strategy as early as possible, but not later than Milestone B approval has been granted for the covered system; and
(B)inform proposed updates or changes in the product support strategy as needed.
(5)Reviewing and recommending resource allocations across product support integrators and product support providers to meet performance requirements of the product support strategy.
(6)Coordinating product support arrangements between product support integrators and product support providers across materiel commands, depots, sustainment working capital funds, and commercial entities to execute the product support strategy and maintain updated parts cataloging and provisioning.
(7)Seeking to resolve issues relating to diminishing manufacturing supply, material shortages, critical readiness items of supply.
(8)Managing the end-to-end coordination process related to qualification, certification, and testing of alternative sources of supply for critical readiness items of supply.
(9)Ensuring the evaluation and selection of product support integrators and product support providers that are best suited to execute the product support strategy.
(e)Definitions.—
In this section: (1)
(2)The terms “covered system”, “critical readiness items of supply”, “product support”, “product support arrangement”, “product support integrator”, and “product support provider” have the meanings given, respectively, in section 4324 of this title.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Prior Provisions

A prior section 1733 was renumbered section 1731 of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

10 U.S.C. § 1733

Title 10, Armed Forces

Last Updated

Sep 23, 2026

Release point: 119-110