{
  "id": "USC-07",
  "category": "Acquisition challenge process",
  "capability": "Evaluate outside challenge proposals for lower-cost or improved defense acquisition solutions",
  "summary": "Solicit or receive innovative challenge proposals, obtain independent technical review, and consider favorable proposals for insertion into an acquisition program, using the statutory Challenge Program process.",
  "legal_basis": [
    {
      "citation": "10 U.S.C. §4062",
      "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title10/html/USCODE-2024-title10-subtitleA-partV-subpartE-chap303-subchapI-sec4062.htm",
      "kind": "statute",
      "note": "Official GovInfo 2024 baseline; read alongside the enacted amendments identified in this record."
    }
  ],
  "authority_holder": "Secretary of Defense acting through the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering",
  "actor_chain": {
    "planner": [
      "Relevant DoD mission or program sponsor"
    ],
    "resource_owner": [
      "Sponsoring component budget owner and comptroller; available funding not verified"
    ],
    "approver": [
      "Secretary of Defense acting through the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering; transaction-specific delegation must be confirmed"
    ],
    "executor": [
      "Authorized component contracting, agreements, or personnel office; assignment is illustrative"
    ],
    "partners": [
      "Program counsel, fiscal officials, and eligible external counterpart as applicable"
    ]
  },
  "actor_sources": [
    {
      "title": "Defense Acquisition Challenge Program — statutory holder and execution conditions",
      "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title10/html/USCODE-2024-title10-subtitleA-partV-subpartE-chap303-subchapI-sec4062.htm"
    }
  ],
  "requirements": [
    "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."
  ],
  "limits": [
    "Section 4062(i) prohibits using Challenge Program funds to implement challenge proposals.",
    "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.",
    "No currently operating intake, BAA, or award was verified in this scrub."
  ],
  "funding": [
    "Available Challenge Program funds may support authorized review and laboratory assistance, not implementation of selected proposals."
  ],
  "coordination_path": "Mission sponsor → relevant program or personnel lead → counsel and fiscal review → official holding the required authority → eligible counterpart. Named functions are routing guidance, not verified individual delegations.",
  "availability": "Express statutory pathway identified in the USC scrub. Current implementation, public intake, appropriations, available balances, and transaction-specific delegations were not independently verified.",
  "confidence": "High on the cited statutory text and express conditions; operational availability is unverified.",
  "currentness": "Reviewed 2026-10-05 against official GovInfo 2024 Code text and a targeted P.L. 119-60 enacted-amendment search. OLRC direct pages were intermittently under maintenance. This is not an exhaustive certification of legislation after that baseline, funding, implementation, or individual delegation. OLRC preliminary search-index text labeled laws effective June 3, 2026 still includes this section. Targeted P.L. 119-60 search found no repeal or amendment to §4062.",
  "family": "Research, innovation and experimentation",
  "supplement": "usc-review-2026-10-05",
  "last_reviewed": "2026-10-05",
  "implementation_caution": "Statutory-source review only. A current implementing program, open intake, available funds and individual delegation were not verified.",
  "usc_review_notes": [
    "Added in the October 5 statutory coverage review. The cited legal mechanism and its conditions were examined; a current implementing program, intake, funding balance and individual delegation were not verified."
  ],
  "mechanisms": [
    "Other statutory tools"
  ],
  "goal_ids": [
    "develop-technology"
  ],
  "office_links": [
    {
      "office_id": "secretary-deputy-secretary",
      "role": "approver",
      "label": "Secretary of Defense acting through the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering; transaction-specific delegation must be confirmed"
    },
    {
      "office_id": "usd-research-engineering",
      "role": "approver",
      "label": "Secretary of Defense acting through the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering; transaction-specific delegation must be confirmed"
    }
  ],
  "family_slug": "research-innovation-and-experimentation",
  "instrument_groups": [
    "Other statutory tools"
  ],
  "executor_route": {
    "id": "execution-usc-07",
    "name": "Authorized component contracting, agreements, or personnel office; assignment is illustrative",
    "label": "Authorized component contracting, agreements, or personnel office; assignment is illustrative",
    "url": "/offices/execution/usc-07/",
    "basis": "Recorded executing role; this record-specific route is not an additional institutional office."
  },
  "program_context": [],
  "program_research": null,
  "checks": [
    {
      "key": "legal",
      "label": "Legal basis",
      "state": "Sources linked",
      "detail": "Legal sources and instrument limits are recorded."
    },
    {
      "key": "eligibility",
      "label": "Requirements",
      "state": "Gates recorded",
      "detail": "Read the requirements for this instrument; applicability depends on the proposed action."
    },
    {
      "key": "funds",
      "label": "Public funding",
      "state": "Rules recorded",
      "detail": "Available Challenge Program funds may support authorized review and laboratory assistance, not implementation of selected proposals. Office budget figures are separate institutional context, not an allocation to this instrument.",
      "url": "/capabilities/usc-07/#funding"
    },
    {
      "key": "delegation",
      "label": "Assigned roles",
      "state": "Roles recorded",
      "detail": "Public sources describe institutional authority. The instrument identifies approval and execution roles; a specific signature remains transaction-dependent.",
      "url": "/capabilities/usc-07/#roles"
    },
    {
      "key": "execution",
      "label": "Engagement",
      "state": "Program unverified",
      "detail": "Added in the October 5 statutory review; no current implementing program, intake or individual delegation verified.",
      "url": "/sources/usc/"
    }
  ],
  "hard_limit": "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."
}