§ 4325 — Major Weapon Systems: Assessment, Management, And Control Of Operating And Support Costs

(a) The Secretary of Defense shall issue and maintain guidance on actions to be taken to assess, manage, and control Department of Defense costs for the operation and support of major weapon systems. (b) The guidance required by subsection (a) shall, at a minimum— (1) be issued in conjunction with the comprehensive guidance on life-cycle management and the development and implementation of product support strategies for major weapon systems required by section 4324 of this title; (2) require the military departments to retain each estimate of operating and support costs that is developed at any time during the life cycle of a major weapon system, together with supporting documentation used to develop the estimate; (3) require the military departments to update estimates of operating and support costs periodically throughout the life cycle of a major weapon system, to determine whether preliminary information and assumptions remain relevant and accurate, and identify and record reasons for variances; (4) establish policies and procedures for the collection, organization, maintenance, and availability of standardized data on operating and support costs for major weapon systems in accordance with section 2222 of this title; (5) establish standard requirements for the collection and reporting of data on operating and support costs for major weapon systems by contractors performing weapon system sustainment functions in an appropriate format, and develop contract clauses to ensure that contractors comply with such requirements; (6) require the military departments— (A) to collect and retain data from operational and developmental testing and evaluation on the reliability and maintainability of major weapon systems; and (B) to use such data to inform system design decisions, provide insight into sustainment costs, and inform estimates of operating and support costs for such systems; (7) require the military departments to ensure that sustainment factors are fully considered at key life-cycle management decision points and that appropriate measures are taken to reduce operating and support costs by influencing system design early in development, developing sound sustainment strategies, and addressing key drivers of costs; (8) require the military departments to conduct an independent logistics assessment of each major weapon system prior to key acquisition decision points (including milestone decisions) to identify features that are likely to drive future operating and support costs, changes to system design that could reduce such costs, and effective strategies for managing such costs; (9) include— (A) reliability metrics for major weapon systems; and (B) requirements on the use of metrics under subparagraph (A) as triggers— (i) to conduct further investigation and analysis into drivers of those metrics; and (ii) to develop strategies for improving reliability, availability, and maintainability of such systems at an affordable cost; and (10) require the military departments to conduct periodic reviews of operating and support costs of major weapon systems after such systems achieve initial operational capability to identify and address factors resulting in growth in operating and support costs and adapt support strategies to reduce such costs. (1) The Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation shall be responsible for developing and maintaining a database on operating and support estimates, supporting documentation, and actual operating and support costs for major weapon systems. (2) The Secretary of Defense shall ensure that the Director, in carrying out such responsibility— (A) promptly receives the results of all cost estimates and cost analyses conducted by the military departments with regard to operating and support costs of major weapon systems; (B) has timely access to any records and data of the military departments (including classified and proprietary information) that the Director considers necessary to carry out such responsibility; and (C) with the concurrence of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, may direct the military departments to collect and retain information necessary to support the database. (d) In this section, the term “major weapon system” has the meaning given that term in section 3455(f) of this title.