republic-os/legal/us/code/title-10/chapter-322/section-4212.md

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LegalText	10 U.S.C. § 4212	Risk management and mitigation in major defense acquisition programs and major systems	us	united_states_code	code_section	10	ARMED FORCES	322	MAJOR SYSTEMS AND MAJOR DEFENSE ACQUISITION PROGRAMS GENERALLY	4212	10 U.S.C. § 4212	current	119-100	2026-06-26	official	https://uscode.house.gov/download/releasepoints/us/pl/119/100/xml_usc10@119-100.zip	/us/usc/t10/s4212	data/legal/raw/us/code/title-10/usc10.xml	81469553a0a5e7c9c694241d4504a0142da02a2271a5b38b7672a243ec5a27c2	06a2679d38355c44f4219c983fdad34009233205d6ba271593a4c1b17a739ec1	9a5b303db18bab57035c2f2ef428217e19c6628e240febcd2c5f9db18c26f5db	2026-07-04	official	legal us-code

10 U.S.C. § 4212 - Risk management and mitigation in major defense acquisition programs and major systems

Text

(a) Requirement.— The Secretary of Defense shall ensure that the initial acquisition strategy (required under section 4211 of this title) approved by the milestone decision authority and any subsequent revisions include the following:

(1) A comprehensive approach for managing and mitigating risk (including technical, cost, and schedule risk) during each of the following periods or when determined appropriate by the milestone decision authority:

(A) The period preceding engineering manufacturing development, or its equivalent.

(B) The period preceding initial production.

(C) The period preceding full-rate production.

(2) An identification of the major sources of risk in each of the periods listed in paragraph (1) to improve programmatic decisionmaking and appropriately minimize and manage program concurrency.

(b) Approach to Manage and Mitigate Risks.— The comprehensive approach to manage and mitigate risk included in the acquisition strategy for purposes of subsection (a)(1) shall, at a minimum, include consideration of risk mitigation techniques such as the following:

(1) Prototyping (including prototyping at the system, subsystem, or component level and competitive prototyping, where appropriate) and, if prototyping at either the system, subsystem, or component level is not used, an explanation of why it is not appropriate.

(2) Modeling and simulation, the areas that modeling and simulation will assess, and identification of the need for development of any new modeling and simulation tools in order to support the comprehensive strategy.

(3) Technology demonstrations and decision points for disciplined transition of planned technologies into programs or the selection of alternative technologies.

(4) Multiple design approaches.

(5) Alternative designs, including any designs that meet requirements but do so with reduced performance.

(6) Phasing of program activities or related technology development efforts in order to address high-risk areas as early as feasible.

(7) Manufacturability and industrial base availability.

(8) Independent risk element assessments by outside subject matter experts.

(9) Schedule and funding margins for identified risks.

(c) Preference for Prototyping.— To the maximum extent practicable and consistent with the economical use of available financial resources, the milestone decision authority for each major defense acquisition program shall ensure that the acquisition strategy for the program provides for—

(1) the production of competitive prototypes at the system or subsystem level before Milestone B approval; or

(2) if the production of competitive prototypes is not practicable, the production of single prototypes at the system or subsystem level.

(d) Concurrency Defined.— In this section, the term “concurrency” means, with respect to an acquisition strategy, the combination or overlap of program phases or activities.

(Added Pub. L. 114–92, div. A, title VIII, § 822(a)(1), Nov. 25, 2015, 129 Stat. 900, § 2431b; amended Pub. L. 114–328, div. A, title X, § 1081(a)(7), Dec. 23, 2016, 130 Stat. 2417; renumbered § 4212 and amended Pub. L. 116–283, div. A, title XVIII, § 1847(b)(3), Jan. 1, 2021, 134 Stat. 4254.)

Notes

Editorial Notes

Amendments2021—Pub. L. 116–283, § 1847(b)(3), renumbered section 2431b of this title as this section. Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 116–283, § 1847(b)(3)(A), substituted “section 4211” for “section 2431a”. Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 116–283, § 1847(b)(3)(B), substituted “Concurrency Defined” for “Definitions” in subsec. heading, struck out par. (1) designation and heading, substituted “In this section, the term” for “The term”, and struck out par. (2) which defined “major defense acquisition program” and “major system”. 2016—Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 114–328 amended subsec. (d) generally. Prior to amendment, subsec. (d) defined terms “major defense acquisition program” and “major system”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date of 2021 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 116–283 effective Jan. 1, 2022, with additional provisions for delayed implementation and applicability of existing law, see section 1801(d) of Pub. L. 116–283, set out as a note preceding section 3001 of this title.