SUMMARY:

Pilot Program for Acquisition of Military-Purpose Nondevelopmental Items (DFARS Case 2011-D034)

Summary:

DCN 20120119 adopts as final, without change, an interim rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement establishing a pilot program to assess the feasibility and advisability of acquiring military-purpose nondevelopmental items in accordance with streamlined procedures.

Supplementary Information:

I.  Background

To implement section 866 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011, DoD published an interim rule in the Federal Register at 76 FR 38048 on June 29, 2011, establishing a pilot program to assess the feasibility and advisability of acquiring military-purpose nondevelopmental items in accordance with streamlined procedures. The authority for this pilot program expires on January 6, 2016. Under this pilot program, DoD may enter into contracts with nontraditional defense contractors for the purpose of--

•  Enabling DoD to acquire items that otherwise might not have been available to DoD;

•  Assisting DoD in the rapid acquisition and fielding of capabilities needed to meet urgent operational needs; and

•  Protecting the interests of the United States in paying fair and reasonable prices for the item or items acquired.

This pilot program is designed to test whether the streamlined procedures, similar to those available for commercial items, can serve as an effective incentive for nontraditional defense contractors to (1)

channel investment and innovation into areas that are useful to DoD and (2) provide items developed exclusively at private expense to meet validated military requirements.

II.  Discussion and Analysis of the Public Comments

DoD reviewed the public comments received from three respondents in the development of the final rule. Two of the three respondents are supportive of both the congressional intent and the interim rule. The respondents submitted comments covering the following three categories:

(A)  Definition of nontraditional defense contractor;

(B)  definition of military-purpose nondevelopmental item; and

(C)  flow down of provision to subcontractors.

A discussion of the comments and responses is provided here.

Dates:

Effective Date:

The Effective Date for this final rule is 19 January 2012.

Click here to read the entire Federal Register notice for this rule.