116 STAT. 2496 PUBLIC LAW 107-314—DEC. 2, 2002 Establishment. Procedures. Procedures. for the increased introduction of innovative and cost-saving technology in acquisition programs of the Department of Defense. "(2) The program, to be known as the Defense Acquisition Challenge Program (hereinafter in this section referred to as the 'Challenge Program'), shall provide any person or activity within or outside the Department of Defense with the opportunity to propose alternatives, to be known as challenge proposals, at the component, subsystem, or system level of an existing Department of Defense acquisition program that would result in improvements in performance, affordability, manufacturability, or operational capability of that acquisition program. "(b) PANELS.— The Under Secretary shall establish one or more panels of highly qusilified scientists and engineers (hereinafter in this section referred to as 'Panels') to provide preliminary evaluations of challenge proposals under subsection (c). "(c) PRELIMINARY EVALUATION BY PANELS.— (1) Under procedures prescribed by the Under Secretary, a person or activity within or outside the Department of Defense may submit challenge proposals to a Panel, through the unsolicited proposal process or in response to a broad agency announcement. "(2) The Under Secretary shall establish procedures pursuant to which appropriate officials of the Department of Defense may identify proposals submitted through the unsolicited proposal process as challenge proposals. The procedures shall provide for the expeditious referral of such proposals to a Panel for preliminary evaluation under this subsection. "(3) The Under Secretary shall issue on an annual basis not less than one such broad agency announcement inviting interested parties to submit challenge proposals. Such announcements may also identify particular technology areas and acquisition programs that will be given priority in the evaluation of challenge proposals. "(4) Under procedures established by the Under Secretary, a Panel shall carry out a preliminary evaluation of each challenge proposal submitted in response to a broad agency announcement, or submitted through the unsolicited proposal process and identified as a challenge proposal in accordance with paragraph (2), to determine each of the following: "(A) Whether the challenge proposal has merit. "(B) Whether the challenge proposal is likely to result in improvements in perfoSnance, affordability, manufacturability, or operational capability at the component, subsystem, or system level of an acquisition program. "(C) Whether the challenge proposal could be implemented in the acquisition program rapidly, at an acceptable cost, and without unacceptable disruption to the acquisition program. "(5) The Under Secretary may establish procedures to ensure that the Challenge Program does not become an avenue for the repetitive submission of proposals that have been previously reviewed and found not to have merit. "(6) If a Panel determines that a challenge proposal satisfies each of the criteria specified in paragraph (4), the person or activity submitting that challenge proposal shall be provided an opportunity to submit such challenge proposal for a full review and evaluation under subsection (d). "(d) FULL REVIEW AND EVALUATION. —(1) Under procedures prescribed by the Under Secretary, for each challenge proposal submitted for a full review and evaluation as provided in subsection
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