It is essential for the national defense that the Department of Defense maintain a core logistics capability that is Government-owned and Government-operated (including Government personnel and Government-owned and Government-operated equipment and facilities) to ensure a ready and controlled source of technical competence and resources necessary to ensure effective and timely response to a mobilization, national defense contingency situations, and other emergency requirements.

(1) It is essential for the national defense that the Department of Defense maintain a core logistics capability that is Government-owned and Government-operated (including Government personnel and Government-owned and Government-operated equipment and facilities) to ensure a ready and controlled source of technical competence and resources necessary to ensure effective and timely response to a mobilization, national defense contingency situations, and other emergency requirements.

(2) The Secretary of Defense shall identify the core logistics capabilities described in paragraph (1) and the workload required to maintain those capabilities.

(3) The core logistics capabilities identified under paragraphs (1) and (2) shall include those capabilities that are necessary to maintain and repair the weapon systems and other military equipment (including mission-essential weapon systems or materiel not later than four years after achieving initial operational capability, but excluding systems and equipment under special access programs, nuclear aircraft carriers, and commercial items described in paragraph (5)) that are identified by the Secretary, in consultation with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as necessary to enable the armed forces to fulfill the strategic and contingency plans prepared by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under section 153(a) of this title.

(4) The Secretary of Defense shall require the performance of core logistics workloads necessary to maintain the core logistics capabilities identified under paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) at Government-owned, Government-operated facilities of the Department of Defense (including Government-owned, Government-operated facilities of a military department) and shall assign such facilities sufficient workload to ensure cost efficiency and technical competence in peacetime while preserving the surge capacity and reconstitution capabilities necessary to support fully the strategic and contingency plans referred to in paragraph (3).

(5) The commercial items covered by paragraph (3) are commercial items that have been sold or leased in substantial quantities to the general public and are purchased without modification in the same form that they are sold in the commercial marketplace, or with minor modifications to meet Federal Government requirements.

For the purposes of subparagraph (A)—

(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), performance of workload needed to maintain a logistics capability identified by the Secretary under subsection (a)(2) may not be contracted for performance by non-Government personnel under the procedures and requirements of Office of Management and Budget Circular A–76 or any successor administrative regulation or policy (hereinafter in this section referred to as OMB Circular A–76).

(2) The Secretary of Defense may waive paragraph (1) in the case of any such logistics capability and provide that performance of the workload needed to maintain that capability shall be considered for conversion to contractor performance in accordance with OMB Circular A–76. Any such waiver shall be made under regulations prescribed by the Secretary and shall be based on a determination by the Secretary that Government performance of the workload is no longer required for national defense reasons. Such regulations shall include criteria for determining whether Government performance of any such workload is no longer required for national defense reasons.

For the purposes of subparagraph (A)—

(A) A waiver under paragraph (2) may not take effect until the expiration of the first period of 30 days of continuous session of Congress that begins on or after the date on which the Secretary submits a report on the waiver to the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives.

(B) For the purposes of subparagraph (A)— (i) continuity of session is broken only by an adjournment of Congress sine die; and (ii) the days on which either House is not in session because of an adjournment of more than three days to a day certain are excluded in the computation of any period of time in which Congress is in continuous session.

The first time that a weapon system or other item of military equipment described in subsection (a)(3) is determined to be a commercial item for the purposes of the exception contained in that subsection, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to Congress a notification of the determination, together with the justification for the determination. The justification for the determination shall include, at a minimum, the following:

(1) The estimated percentage of commonality of parts of the version of the item that is sold or leased in the commercial marketplace and the Government’s version of the item.

(2) The value of any unique support and test equipment and tools that are necessary to support the military requirements if the item were maintained by the Government.

(3) A comparison of the estimated life cycle logistics support costs that would be incurred by the Government if the item were maintained by the private sector with the estimated life cycle logistics support costs that would be incurred by the Government if the item were maintained by the Government.

Not later than April 1 of each even-numbered year, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to Congress a report identifying, for each of the armed forces (except for the Coast Guard), for the fiscal year after the fiscal year during which the report is submitted, each of the following:

(1) The core depot-level maintenance and repair capability requirements and sustaining workloads, organized by work breakdown structure, expressed in direct labor hours.

(2) The corresponding workloads necessary to sustain core depot-level maintenance and repair capability requirements, expressed in direct labor hours and cost.

(3) In any case where core depot-level maintenance and repair capability requirements exceed or are expected to exceed sustaining workloads, a detailed rationale for any and all shortfalls and a plan either to correct or mitigate the effects of the shortfalls.

(4) Any workload shortfalls at any work breakdown structure category designated as a lower-level category pursuant to Department of Defense Instruction 4151.20, or any successor instruction.

(5) A description of any workload executed at a category designated as a first-level category pursuant to such Instruction, or any successor instruction, that could be used to mitigate shortfalls in similar categories.

(6) A description of any progress made on implementing mitigation plans developed pursuant to paragraph (3).

(7) A description of core capability requirements and corresponding workloads at the first level category.

(8) In the case of any shortfall that is identified, a description of the shortfall and an identification of the subcategory of the work breakdown structure in which the shortfall occurred.

(9) In the case of any work breakdown structure category designated as a special interest item or other pursuant to such Instruction, or any successor instruction, an explanation for such designation.

(10) Whether the core depot-level maintenance and repair capability requirements described in the report submitted under this subsection for the preceding fiscal year have been executed.

The Comptroller General of the United States shall review each report submitted under subsection (d) for completeness and compliance and shall submit to the congressional defense committees findings and recommendations with respect to the report by not later than 60 days after the date on which the report is submitted to Congress.

(Added and amended Pub. L. 112–239, div. A, title III, § 322(b)(2)(A), (d), Jan. 2, 2013, 126 Stat. 1695; Pub. L. 115–91, div. A, title III, § 332, Dec. 12, 2017, 131 Stat. 1354; Pub. L. 115–232, div. A, title VIII, § 836(e)(10), Aug. 13, 2018, 132 Stat. 1870.)