Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) Phase

The third phase of the Major Capability Acquisition process. The purpose of the phase is to develop, build, test, and evaluate a materiel solution to verify that all operational and implied requirements, including those for security, have been met, and to support production, deployment and sustainment decisions. The program will complete all needed hardware and software detailed designs. A critical design review assesses design maturity, design build-to or code-to documentation, and remaining risks, and establishes the initial technical baseline. The EMD phase will end when the design is stable; the system meets validated capability requirements demonstrated by developmental, live fire (as appropriate), and early operational testing; manufacturing processes have been effectively demonstrated and are under control; software sustainment processes are in place and functioning; industrial production capabilities are reasonably available; program security remains uncompromised; and the program has met or exceeds all directed phase exit criteria and Milestone C entrance criteria per the Milestone Decision Authority's direction.