Wanted to let the community know that the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) earlier this week issued an updated version of their “Acquiring and Enforcing the Government's Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software Under Department of Defense Contracts: A Practical Handbook for Acquisition Professionals" (9th Edition, October 2018)

For your convenience, this handbook is available to all defense acquisition professionals Services via the DAU Tools website, and can be accessed via either desktop or mobile device. Major changes are:

• Revisions to the MOSA chapter providing updated/additional sources--e.g., the new JCIDS manual--and more clearly describing the benefits of implementing that concept in acquisition programs.
• Reformatting the Acquisition Strategy chapter for readability, addressing new statutory requirements, and providing a short discussion of EVM.
• Adding new chapters discussing Life-Cycle Sustainment Plan content and Milestone B certification requirements.
• Adding explanations to support existing recommendations.
• Providing alternative approaches regarding how offerors should proposed asserted restrictions.
• Clarifying and updating the Source Selection chapter.
• Updating the Sole-Source chapter based upon more current resources-especially the subsection regarding establishing a fair and reasonable price for IP.
• Adding references to recent ASBCA and GAO decisions.
• Adding a definition for the term "technical baseline".
• Reformatting existing text for clarity.
• An updated list of all DAU courses that address this subject.
• Citations to new resources and updated hyperlinks to existing footnoted resources to resolve "link rot" that has occurred since issuance of the 8th edition.
• Reformatting citations to be consistent with the Army JAG School's Military Citation Guide.
• Replacing an appendix containing 11-year-old RFP excerpts with a new appendix, and replacing incorrect pages in an existing appendix with the correct pages.

Photo: US Air Force