PRODUCT EVALUATION

SEC. 842. PRODUCT EVALUATION (a) In General.—Chapter 139 of title 10, United States Code, as amended by section 823, is further amended by adding at the end the following new section: “§ 2369. Product evaluation activity “(a) Establishment.—The Secretary of Defense, acting through the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, shall establish a program for the supervision and coordination of product evaluation activities within the Department of Defense. “(b) Conduct of Product Evaluation.—(1) The Secretary of each military department and the head of each Defense Agency may, subject to supervision and coordination by the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, establish and conduct appropriate product evaluation activities. “(2) The purpose of each product evaluation activity established under paragraph (1) is to evaluate products developed by private industry independent of any contract or other arrangement with the United States in order to determine the utility of such products to the Department of Defense. “(c) Cost Sharing.—As a condition to conducting an evaluation of any product under this section, the producer of the product shall be required to pay one half of the cost of conducting such evaluation. For product development proposed by a small business concern (within the meaning of section 3 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632)), the Secretary of Defense may pay up to 85 percent of the cost of product evaluation if the small business concern agrees to a not-for-profit contract.”. (b) Clerical Amendment.—The table of sections at the beginning of such chapter, as amended by section 823, is further amended by adding at the end the following new item: “2869 Product evaluation activity ”.