EconDefense
ACQ-38 / Acquisition, transition and contract finance

Commit to multiyear equipment purchases and economic-order quantities

Contract across program years to stabilize demand and permit economic production and advance component buys, subject to findings and legislative controls.

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At a glance

Possible toolACQ-38 · Contracts & purchases
Legal basis10 U.S.C. §3501

Authority holder: Head of agency; Secretary of Defense and Congress for specified authorizations/certifications

Contracts & purchases

Mechanism tags describe the source text; they do not expand the authority.

Availability and verification

Express statutory pathway; award-specific appropriations, available balances, delegations, implementation and approvals not independently verified.

Requirements and limits

Eligibility & prerequisites

  • Find savings or otherwise-unachievable industrial-base stability; stable need/design, realistic costs and funding expectations, and national-security benefit.
  • Large contracts and specified programs require statutory authorization, certification and notice.

Limits & exclusions

  • FY26 removed the word significant from the savings test; it did not abolish remaining findings.
  • Ordinary statutory term and cancellation rules remain, with product-specific exceptions such as FY26 §804.
  • No guarantee Congress will appropriate future-year money.

Funding conditions

  • Available first-year funds; out-year continuation subject to appropriations; cancellation exposure must be assessed and funded through lawful sources.

Read the funding and execution guide

Who contributes what

Need & planning

  • Operational requirement owner; Service/component portfolio acquisition executive and program manager

Resources

  • Sponsoring Service/component appropriations manager and comptroller

Approval

  • Service/component acquisition executive and authorized contracting authority, at applicable threshold

Execution

Partners & review

  • User command
  • Counsel, fiscal, engineering, testing, logistics and security staff as applicable

Office links are editorial matches to the original role text, not verified delegations. Composite labels and unmatched actors are preserved.

Coordination pathway

PAE/program and industrial planner → cost/design/fiscal findings → Service/OSD approval and Congress where required → multiyear contract.

Actor and execution-role sources

Legal basis

  • 10 U.S.C. §3501Primary statutory text; primary GovInfo baseline and amendment audit identified in research narrative.
  • P.L. 119-60, §804Enacted public law, not a pending bill.

What this research establishes

Legal powerSource and conditions recorded
EligibilityProject-specific check needed
Available fundsBalances not verified
DelegationValid signature authority must be checked
ExecutionOffice capacity and approvals must be checked

Confidence: High on express authority and cited conditions; execution assignment is illustrative unless statute expressly names it.

Currentness: GovInfo 2024 Code (includes FY2025 NDAA, P.L. 118-159) read in full for cited provision; targeted FY2026 NDAA P.L. 119-60 amendment/repeal sweep. No claim of complete legislative currency through 2026-10-02; remaining 2026 delta needs counsel validation.

Research target: October 2, 2026. A record-specific last-review date is not supplied. Publication date is not legal-currentness certification.

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