Sec. 871 — Enhancement to defense supply chain resilience and secondary source qualification

Statutory text

(a) Streamlined acceptance. In implementing section 865 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 (Public Law 118—159; 10 U.S.C. 4811 note), the Secretary of Defense shall establish a pathway to streamline and consolidate the approval authority of the process established under such section for applications for Source Approval Requests submitted by the manufacturer of record for such capability.

(b) Applicability. The pathway established by subsection (a) shall apply in cases where—(1)a qualified engineering designee has certified in writing that the engineering data included in the applicable Source Approval Request, including the technical data package, conforms to the applicable technical data package or reverse engineering standards; and(2)the applicant, or the relevant majority-owned manufacturing subsidiary of such applicant, holds a current AS9100 Rev D certification (or successor standard) issued by an accredited third-party certification body.

(c) Expedited qualification

(1) Acceptance of certification. Except as provided in paragraph (2), an Expedited Qualification Panel established under subsection (f) of such section 865 shall accept a certification made under subsection (b) as the full engineering evaluation necessary for the review of a Source Approval Request by the Expedited Qualification Panel.

(2) Additional evaluation. An Expedited Qualification Panel may determine in writing that additional engineering evaluation of a Source Approval Request is required based on safety or mission criticality, novelty, or complexity of the item. Such a determination shall be provided to the applicant not later than 14 days after such applicant submits such Source Approval Request, along with a request from the Expedited Qualification Panel for any additional information needed from the application to complete the expedited qualification process.