Title 10 — Armed ForcesRelease 119-73not60

§9025 Office of Expanded Competition

Title 10 › Subtitle Subtitle D— Air Force and Space Force › Part I— ORGANIZATION › Chapter 903— DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE › § 9025

Last updated Apr 3, 2026|Official source

Summary

Creates an Office of Expanded Competition inside the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force. The office must be led by a Director chosen by the Secretary of the Air Force from Department of Defense employees who have the needed expertise and who either hold a Senior Executive Service position or meet the Executive Core Qualifications. The Office must watch for and study investments from adversaries into industries the Department cares about. It must find and rank critical technologies and assets that need funding, including ones tied to foreign sources, and make or support investments—like loans or other help—to protect supply chains and national security. The Office must help DoD technology scouts and buyers coordinate investment decisions, test tools and processes for doing due diligence, support commercial access and placement, and work with other DoD and federal parts to get whole-of-government solutions. Adversarial capital flow: an investment by a foreign adversary’s government or an entity under that government’s laws. Capital assistance: a loan, loan guarantee, or technical assistance.

Full Legal Text

Title 10, §9025

Armed Forces — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)There is in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force an office to be known as the Office of Expanded Competition (in this section referred to as the “Office”).

(b)The head of the Office shall be the Director. The Director shall be appointed by the Secretary of the Air Force from among employees of the Department of Defense with requisite subject matter expertise who—

(1)are in a Senior Executive Service position (as defined in section 3132 of title 5) at the time of appointment; or

(2)are not in a Senior Executive Service position at the time of appointment, but meet the Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) for such a position.

(c)The duties of the Office are as follows:

(1)In consultation with other components of the Department of Defense and the Federal Government, conduct coordinated and integrated assessments of adversarial capital flows into industries or businesses of interest to the Department of Defense.

(2)Identify and prioritize promising critical technologies and assets for the Joint Force in need of capital assistance, including critical technologies and assets available from foreign entities.

(3)Fund investments in such technologies and assets, including supply chain technologies not always supported through direct investment.

(4)Support the coordination and outreach efforts of technology scouting and acquisition elements within the Department of Defense to enable investment decision-making by those elements that counteract entities employing adversarial capital flows against industries or businesses described in paragraph (1), including the employment of relevant authorities vested in other components of the Department and the Federal Government.

(5)Identify, accelerate, and sustain the establishment, research, development, construction, procurement, leasing, consolidation, alteration, improvement, modernization, and repair of tangible and intangible assets vital to the national security of the United States.

(6)Help the Department of Defense provide capital assistance to entities, including foreign entities, engaged in investments that facilitate the efforts of the Department.

(7)Experiment, prototype, test, or validate Government-developed or commercially developed analytical tools, processes, and tradecraft to improve the due diligence and investment analysis processes for the Department of Defense, including the employment of relevant delegated authorities vested in other components of the Department and the Federal Government.

(8)Assist the Secretary of Defense in developing access and placement using commercial means.

(9)Otherwise engage with, coordinate, and collaborate with other components of the Department of Defense and the Federal Government to maximize efficiencies and promote whole-of-government solutions to protect the national security of the United States.

(d)In this section:

(1)The term “adversarial capital flow” means an investment by—

(A)the government of a country that is an adversary of the United States; or

(B)an entity organized under the laws of, or otherwise subject to the jurisdiction of, such a country.

(2)The term “capital assistance” means a loan, loan guarantee, or technical assistance.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

10 U.S.C. § 9025

Title 10 — Armed Forces

Last Updated

Apr 3, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60