EVALUATION OF YEAR 2000 COMPLIANCE AS PART OF TRAINING EXERCISES PROGRAMS.

SEC. 334. EVALUATION OF YEAR 2000 COMPLIANCE AS PART OF TRAINING EXERCISES PROGRAMS. (a) Report on Evaluation Plan.— Not later than December 15, 1998, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to Congress a plan for the execution of a simulated year 2000 as part of military exercises described in subsection (c) in order to evaluate, in an operational environment, the extent to which information technology and national security systems involved in those exercises will successfully operate during the actual year 2000, including the ability of those systems to access and transmit information from point of origin to point of termination. (b) Evaluation of Compliance in Selected Exercises.— In conducting the military exercises described in subsection (c), the Secretary of Defense shall ensure that— (1) at least 25 of those exercises (referred to in this section as “year 2000 simulation exercises”) are conducted so as to112 STAT. 1971include a simulated year 2000 in accordance with the plan submitted under subsection (a); (2) at least two of those exercises are conducted by the commander of each unified or specified combatant command; and (3) all mission critical systems that are expected to be used if the Armed Forces are involved in a conflict in a major theater of war are tested in at least two exercises. (c) Covered Military Exercises.— A military exercise referred to in this section is a military exercise conducted by the Department of Defense, during the period beginning on January 1, 1999, and ending on September 30, 1999— (1) under the training exercises program known as the “CJCS Exercise Program”; (2) at the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, the Army National Training Center, or the Air Force Air Warfare Center; or (3) as part of Naval Carrier Group fleet training or Marine Corps Expeditionary Unit training. (d) Alternative Testing Method.— In the case of an information technology or national security system for which a simulated year 2000 test as part of a military exercise described in subsection (c) is not feasible or presents undue risk, the Secretary of Defense shall test the system using a functional end-to-end test or through a Defense Major Range and Test Facility Base. The Secretary shall include the plans for these tests in the plan required by subsection (a). Tests under this subsection are in addition to the 25 tests required by subsection (b). (e) Authority for Exclusion of Systems Not Capable of Performing Reliably in Year 2000 Simulation.— (1) In carrying out a year 2000 simulation exercise, the Secretary of Defense may exclude a particular information technology or national security system from the year 2000 simulation phase of the exercise if the Secretary determines that the system would be incapable of performing reliably during the year 2000 simulation phase of the exercise. In such a case, the system excluded shall be replaced in accordance with the year 2000 contingency plan for the system. (2) If the Secretary of Defense excludes an information technology or national security system from the year 2000 simulation phase of an exercise as provided in paragraph (1), the Secretary shall notify Congress of that exclusion not later than two weeks before commencing that exercise. The notice shall include a list of each information technology or national security system excluded from the exercise, a description of how the exercise will use the year 2000 contingency plan for each such system, and a description of the effect that continued year 2000 noncompliance of each such system would have on military readiness. (3) An information technology or national security system with cryptological applications that is not capable of having its internal clock adjusted forward to a simulated later time is exempt from the year 2000 simulation phase of an exercise under this section. (f) Comptroller General Review.— Not later than January 30, 1999, the Comptroller General shall review the report and plan submitted under subsection (a) and submit to Congress a briefing evaluating the methodology to be used under the plan to simulate the year 2000 and describing the potential information that will be collected as a result of implementation of the plan, 112 STAT. 1972the adequacy of the planned tests, and the impact that the plan will have on military readiness. (g) Definitions.— For the purposes of this section: (1) The term “information technology” has the meaning given that term in section 5002 of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 (40 U.S.C. 1401). (2) The term “national security system” has the meaning given that term in section 5142 of such Act (40 U.S.C. 1452). (3) The term “mission critical system” means an information technology or national security system that is designated as mission critical in the May 1998 Department of Defense quarterly report on the status of year 2000 compliance.