In the November 2009 “DoD Weapon System Acquisition Review: Product Support Assessment”, Dr Carter, the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L) reiterated the following strategic imperative to our community: “As DoD moves forward with weapon system acquisition reform, attention to product support must be increased, and life cycle management must be better focused to achieve affordable operational Warfighter outcomes.”  In conjunction with other key initiatives listed below, DoD is already well on its way to implementing the recommendations contained in this product support assessment:

·         Life Cycle Sustainment Outcome Metrics (March 2007)

·         DoD Logistics Human Capital Strategy (June 2008)

·         Public Law 111-84, Section 805 Establishing Requirement for Product Support Manager (PSM) (October 2009)

·         USD AT&L Better Buying Power Initiatives (September & November 2010)

·         USD AT&L Directive-Type Memorandum (DTM) 10-015 - Requirements for Life Cycle Management and Product Support (October 2010)

·         USD AT&L Directive Type Memorandum (DTM) 11-003 - Reliability Analysis, Planning, Tracking, and Reporting (March 2011)

·         Defense Acquisition Guidebook (DAG) Chapter 5 (April 2011 Update)

·         DoD Product Support Manager (PSM) Guidebook (April 2011)

·         DoD Product Support Business Case Analysis (BCA) Guidebook (April 2011)

·         DoD Logistics Assessment (LA) Guidebook (Late- May or early-June 2011)

FY12 DAWIA Certification Changes. As a result, in January of this year, the DoD Life Cycle Logistics Functional Integrated Process Team (FIPT) approved, and the Life Cycle Logistics career field Functional Leader (Assistant Deputy Secretary of Defense for Materiel Readiness) directed the following changes to the Life Cycle Logistics Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) certification training requirements effective at the start of the next fiscal year (FY12).

While experience and education requirements for certification remain unchanged, the following training certification changes will become effective at the beginning of FY12 (1 Oct 11):

·         LOG 236 “Performance Based Logistics, Part B” Level II certification course will be replaced by a new LOG 340 “Life Cycle Product Support” Level III course

·         SYS 101 “Systems Planning, Research Development, and Engineering (SPRDE) Fundamentals” will be added as a Level I Life Cycle Logistics certification course

·         Continuous Learning (CL) Module requirements at Level II will change from “2 CL Modules from the Core Plus List” to specifying “CLL001 Life Cycle Management & Sustainment Metrics (currently in development) and CLL012 Supportability Analysis” (currently in development)

·         CL Module requirements at Level III will change from “2 CL Modules from the Core Plus List” to specifying “CLL005 Developing a Life Cycle Sustainment Plan (currently in development), CLL015 Business Case Analysis (BCA), AND CLL020 Logistics Assessments”

·         Establishment of a “choose one of the following four courses” requirement at Level III:

o    ACQ 265 Mission-Focused Services Acquisition

o    BCF 215 Operating and Support Cost Analysis

o    RQM 110 Core Concepts for Requirements Management

o    LOG 204 Configuration Management

LOG 340 Transition Plan. For students who are currently in the process of completing their Level II or Level III certification requirements, please be aware of the following important LOG 236 to LOG 340 transition information.

·         LOG 236 classes will continue to be taught through the end of September. There will be no further LOG 236 course offerings after 30 Sep 11.

·         For DAWIA certification purposes, for a period of one year, LOG 236 will be identified as a predecessor course for LOG 340, meaning students seeking Level III Life Cycle Logistics career field certification during FY12 (1 Oct 11 through 30 Sep 12) can apply EITHER LOG 236 or LOG 340 toward meeting their LOG 340 Level III certification requirement

·         For the one year after LOG 340 deployment (1 Oct 11 through 30 Sep 12), EITHER LOG 236 or LOG 340 will be acceptable prerequisites for LOG 350 (along with ACQ 201B and any others specified in the DAU iCatalog)

·         LOG 340 prerequisites will be ACQ 201B, LOG 201, LOG 235, CLL005, CLL015, and CLL020

·         All of this information is being added to the Life Cycle Logistics sections of the DAU iCatalog, although to reiterate: these changes do not, repeat, do not, take effect until 1 Oct 2011.

My sincere thanks to the DAU course managers, learning asset managers, instructional systems designers, programmers, performance learning directors, schedulers, and other key staff and faculty who have been working diligently to ensure required FY12 course and continuous learning module development remains on schedule. DAU learning assets are first and foremost competency-based, and are directly aligned with current DoD Functional Leader life cycle management, product support, and life cycle logistics policy, process, and guidance. And at the end of the day, these changes will help ensure our life cycle logisticians are well-prepared to successfully meet the future long-term product support requirements and challenges we know lie ahead.