The Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment recently issued a March 20, 2019 memorandum entitled "Middle Tier of Acquisition (Rapid Prototyping/Rapid Fielding) Interim Governance 2" of interest to the life cycle logistics, product support manager and sustainment community.

The memo states in part “Section 804 of the National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2016 requires that the rapid fielding pathway guidance shall include a process for considering life-cycle costs and addressing issues of logistics support and system interoperability. Consistent with this authority, sustainment resourcing and planning must be key considerations of rapid fielding”

She goes on to emphasize that “systems planned for rapid fielding must develop an affordable sustainment strategy, beginning with designing sustainment attributes, such as maintainability and reliability, into system specifications and requirements. As a Concept of Operations is in development, sustainment functions, such as planned and unplanned maintenance, technical data rights levels, manpower, training, and supply must be considered and addressed in the acquisition strategy or tailored Life Cycle Sustainment Plan. Organizations utilizing this interim authority must include sustainment considerations…”

A powerful reminder from the Undersecretary of the criticality of long-term product support and sustainment planning.