§4174 Contracts: Acquisition, Construction, or Furnishing of Test Facilities and Equipment

Summary

Allows a military research or development contract to include the buying, building, or providing of test or research facilities and equipment the head of that military department says are needed to do the work. The cost of those facilities must follow the rules for allowable contract expenses. The United States can pay for the facilities and then lend, lease, or sell them to the contractor (sale at fair value). It cannot be used to approve new construction or improvements that have general use. The Secretary of Defense and the military department heads must create rules to make this work. If a facility cannot be easily removed from land that the United States does not own, the contract must protect the United States by either promising to reimburse the government for the facility’s fair value when the contract ends, giving the United States an option to buy the land, or another protection the Secretary accepts. Money from sales or reimbursements goes to the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts unless another law says otherwise. Multiple users can set up a jointly funded project with written agreements that cover cost sharing, who gets access, who manages it, ownership and intellectual property, and how to settle disputes. Non-federal groups can join only if the Secretary of Defense finds it is in the national security interest and allowed by law. The rule applies to contracts funded by research, development, test, and evaluation funds (budget activities 1–3 as listed in DOD 7000.14–R, vol. 2B, ch. 5) and to operation and maintenance funds when used for these activities. A "covered contract" means a military department contract or a jointly funded project contract.