Contracts & purchases

Authority holder

Military-department Secretaries and other agencies within their express missions and valid delegations

Eligibility gate

• Defined defense mission/requirement and available appropriation.
• Commercial-product/service market research and statutory preferences; authorized contracting official.

Funding condition

• Properly available procurement, services, O&M or other mission appropriation; authorization is not appropriation.

All recorded limits

• General procurement is not blanket authority for loans, equity, unrestricted grants or another agency’s law-enforcement powers.
• Domestic-source, security, competition, labor and other applicable statutes remain; FY26 repealed former §3455 instead of treating it as current.

Authority holder

Head of agency and authorized contracting officers

Eligibility gate

• Solicitation describes period, maximum quantity/value and work scope.
• Fair opportunity among multiple-award holders unless statutory order exception applies.

Funding condition

• Fund minimum commitments and individual orders lawfully; IDIQ ceiling is neither appropriation nor guaranteed spending.

All recorded limits

• Orders cannot themselves increase parent contract scope, term or ceiling.
• Generally initial period up to 5 years and total up to 10 years; longer requires exceptional-circumstances finding; advisory/assistance services have distinct §3405 rules.

Authority holder

Head of agency; Secretary of Defense and Congress for specified authorizations/certifications

Eligibility gate

• Find savings or otherwise-unachievable industrial-base stability; stable need/design, realistic costs and funding expectations, and national-security benefit.
• Large contracts and specified programs require statutory authorization, certification and notice.

Funding condition

• Available first-year funds; out-year continuation subject to appropriations; cancellation exposure must be assessed and funded through lawful sources.

All recorded limits

• FY26 removed the word significant from the savings test; it did not abolish remaining findings.
• Ordinary statutory term and cancellation rules remain, with product-specific exceptions such as FY26 §804.
• No guarantee Congress will appropriate future-year money.

Authority holder

Head of agency; authorized contracting/finance officials

Eligibility gate

• Payment basis, adequate security where required and public-interest determination for general advances.
• Progress/performance evidence; aggregate payments cannot exceed unpaid contract price.

Funding condition

• Appropriate contract funds; rules differ for ordinary advance payments, commercial payments and performance-based arrangements.

All recorded limits

• Contract financing is not an unrestricted corporate loan or investment.
• FY26 specifies qualifying commercial subscription/consumption payments are not advances for §3803 purposes; do not infer waiver of all fiscal limits.

Authority holder

Secretary of Defense; Secretaries of military departments participate in proposal review

Eligibility gate

• Cost-effective merit selection; required data-collection plan submitted to Congress before funding.
• Use authorized underlying contracts, cooperative agreements, OTs or other appropriate process.

Funding condition

• Expressly subject to appropriations; authorizing a program does not show a live solicitation or funds for a project.

All recorded limits

• FY26 minimum $10m and ordinary maximum $50m per selected proposal; greater amount needs Secretary of Defense/designee approval.
• Solicitation/participant restrictions and 30-day award notice apply.

Authority holder

Secretary of Defense and military-department Secretaries

Eligibility gate

• Metered actual usage and predetermined fixed unit prices; 75%/90% funding-consumption notifications.
• Implementing acquisition provisions and appropriate service model.

Funding condition

• Amounts authorized for this acquisition authority may cover RDT&E, procurement, production, modification and O&M; incremental contracts/agreements and advances expressly permitted.

All recorded limits

• Feature/capability additions up to 25% of original contract value receive specified competitive treatment; not unlimited out-of-scope growth.
• Do not read lifecycle-purpose provision as permission to move any existing appropriation without fiscal analysis.

Authority holder

President authorizes; DoD/Service officials or Contract Adjustment Boards within lawful delegation

Eligibility gate

• National-defense facilitation; valid Presidential authorization and applicable national emergency.
• Above $500k approval at specified senior level; above $150m congressional notice and 60 days continuous-session wait.

Funding condition

• Available lawful funds and contingent-liability review; special inflation relief required specific appropriations even when active.

All recorded limits

• Not permission to disregard all procurement/fiscal laws; §1432 express exclusions remain.
• Separate inflation-only §1431(c)-(d) authority ended 2025-12-31 in audited law and is not treated as currently available.
• Statute is substantive grant; Executive Order 10789 only supplies implementation/delegation, not a substitute grant.

Authority holder

Secretary of Defense; authorized contracting/risk officials

Eligibility gate

• Classified fixed-price product contract entered after 2025-12-18.
• Classification causes unavailable commercial insurance or inability to process claim.

Funding condition

• Allocate risk expressly in eligible contract and review contingent exposure; statute does not itself provide an appropriation.

All recorded limits

• Does not cover managerial willful misconduct/lack of good faith or contractor workmanship error.
• Protection applies to work in process before government delivery/acceptance, not every corporate loss.