Evaluate outside challenge proposals for lower-cost or improved defense acquisition solutions
- Objective
- Develop a technology
- Family / instrument
- Research, innovation and experimentation · Acquisition challenge process
- Statute
- Authority holder
- Secretary of Defense acting through the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering
- Executor · routing lead
- Authorized component contracting, agreements, or personnel office; assignment is illustrative
Recorded eligibility gates (excerpt)
Use the preliminary and full-review criteria and conflict-of-interest safeguards in §4062(c)-(h).
A favorable proposal receives consideration; actual adoption requires the acquiring program and an appropriate implementation funding route.All requirements & limits
Recorded funding condition (excerpt)
Available Challenge Program funds may support authorized review and laboratory assistance, not implementation of selected proposals.All funding conditions
What this does not authorize / limits
The separate non-major-program pilot in §4062(l) terminated January 7, 2021; the broader program must not be represented as reopening that expired pilot.
- Section 4062(i) prohibits using Challenge Program funds to implement challenge proposals.
- No currently operating intake, BAA, or award was verified in this scrub.
Implementation caution: Statutory-source review only. A current implementing program, open intake, available funds and individual delegation were not verified.
Public evidence describes the institution and instrument; it is not approval of an individual transaction. Express statutory pathway identified in the USC scrub. Current implementation, public intake, appropriations, available balances, and transaction-specific delegations were not independently verified.
Actor sources
Independent public-source guide; not an official U.S. government website. Record reviewed 2026-10-05. Read the full record for currentness, coordination and all source notes.