EconDefense
ACQ-53 / Acquisition, transition and contract finance

Assume classified-contract work-in-process risk that cannot be commercially insured

DoD must not require contractors to bear specified work-in-process loss when classification prevents obtaining insurance or processing a claim under covered fixed-price product contracts.

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At a glance

Possible toolACQ-53 · Contracts & purchases
Legal basis10 U.S.C. §3864

Authority holder: Secretary of Defense; authorized contracting/risk officials

Contracts & purchasesSecurity & information

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

  • Classified fixed-price product contract entered after 2025-12-18.
  • Classification causes unavailable commercial insurance or inability to process claim.

Limits & exclusions

  • Does not cover managerial willful misconduct/lack of good faith or contractor workmanship error.
  • Protection applies to work in process before government delivery/acceptance, not every corporate loss.

Funding conditions

  • Allocate risk expressly in eligible contract and review contingent exposure; statute does not itself provide an appropriation.

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

Classified program and contractor → security/insurance evidence → contracting/fiscal/counsel → appropriate contract risk allocation.

Actor and execution-role sources

Legal basis

  • 10 U.S.C. §3864Primary statutory text; primary GovInfo baseline and amendment audit identified in research narrative.
  • P.L. 119-60, §801Enacted 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: 10 U.S.C. §3864 enacted P.L. 119-60 §801; full text read; implementing DFARS required within 120 days, completion not verified.

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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