§5514 Acquisition Accountability on the Missile Defense System

Summary

The Director of the Missile Defense Agency must create and keep an acquisition baseline for every missile defense program element and each major subprogram. The baseline must be in place before the program or subprogram starts engineering and manufacturing development (or the equivalent) and before it goes into production and deployment. The Director may not change the baseline unless they notify the congressional defense committees with a justification, the exact changes, and the new effective date. Each baseline must cover a schedule, a technical description, a cost estimate, and a test plan. The schedule shows research and development and acquisition milestones, major tests (ground, flight, cyber, and system tests), delivery and fielding dates, quantities by fiscal year, and planned contract dates. The technical description explains the hardware and software, system performance needs, how it meets warfighter or Joint Chiefs/JROC requirements, key knowledge points needed to continue the program, and plans to improve the capability over time. The cost estimate must include a life‑cycle total that separates research and development, procurement, military construction, operations and sustainment, and disposal; unit and average procurement costs; timing for required joint cost analysis documents or why one is not applicable. Life‑cycle estimates must also list all operations and sustainment costs the Director is responsible for, describe the functions and costs a military department must cover, show the dollar amounts and base year for those costs, cite the source and date of the cost data, and say if the Office for Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation independently verified it.