Prototype to Production Act

Section 4022 of title 10, United States Code, is amended—

(1) in subsection (a)—

(A) by amending paragraph (2) to read as follows:

(2) The authority of this section may be exercised for a transaction for a prototype project, or for a transaction for a follow-on production contract or transaction that is awarded pursuant to subsection (f) or (g), that is expected to cost the Department of Defense in excess of $100,000,000 (including all options) only upon a written determination that the requirements of subsection (d) will be met by a head of the contracting activity, or, for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Defense Innovation Unit, or the Missile Defense Agency, the director of the agency.

(A) ; and

(B) by amending paragraph (3) to read as follows:

(3) The authority of the head of the contracting activity, the director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the director of the Defense Innovation Unit, the director of the Missile Defense Agency, or the senior procurement executive, as applicable, under paragraph (2), may not be delegated.

(2) in subsection (e)—

(A) by amending paragraph (1) to read as follows:

(1) The term head of the contracting activity means those officials within the organization who have responsibility for and manage an acquisition organization and usually hold unlimited procurement authority.

(A) ; and

(B) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

(6) The term follow-on production means a contract or transaction that is intended to further develop, test, produce, deploy, operate, or sustain a capability that was successfully prototyped under the authority established in subsection (a).

(3) by redesignating subsections (h) and (i) as subsections (i) and (j), respectively; and

(4) by inserting after subsection (g) the following new subsection:

A production transaction may be awarded, with or without the use of competitive procedures, to acquire emergent and proven technologies and field production quantities of new or upgraded systems that do not require additional development and have been demonstrated in a relevant environment when the appropriate service or component acquisition executive determines in writing that exceptional circumstances justify the use of such a transaction to address a high priority warfighter need.