§3604 Program to Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies

Summary

Create a competitive, merit-based program to speed up buying and using new technologies for defense, as long as money is available. The program must aim to cut purchase and life-cycle costs, reduce technical risks, make testing faster and better, and get useful tech into the field quickly to support missions. The Secretary of Defense must make rules for how the program works. The rules must include calls for proposals, with priority for small businesses and nontraditional defense contractors. No more than two special calls each year for organizations that in the past year did not have more than $400,000,000 in DoD contract obligations. Proposals are reviewed by the Secretary and each military department, picked by merit, and bought using contracts, cooperative agreements, other transaction authority, or similar methods. Awards must be at least $10,000,000 and no more than $50,000,000 unless the Secretary approves more. The Secretary cannot spend money until a plan for collecting program data is finished and sent to the congressional defense committees. The Department must collect data to find and share best practices, explain how the program works, and report to Congress. Reports to the congressional defense committees are due by March 1 and September 1 each year after the law is enacted. The Secretary must also notify those committees within 30 days after funding is provided for any selected proposal.