LIMITATIONS ON ACQUISITION OF INTERIM ARMORED VEHICLES AND DEPLOYMENT OF INTERIM BRIGADE COMBAT TEAMS.

SEC. 113. LIMITATIONS ON ACQUISITION OF INTERIM ARMORED VEHICLES AND DEPLOYMENT OF INTERIM BRIGADE COMBAT TEAMS. Section 113 of the Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (as enacted into law by Public Law 106–398; 114 Stat. 1654A-23) is amended— (1) by redesignating subsection (f) as subsection (j); and (2) by inserting after subsection (e) the following new subsections: “(f) Waiver of Comparison Requirement.—The Secretary of Defense may waive subsections (c) and (e)(1) and submit to the congressional defense committees a certification under subsection (e)(2) without regard to the requirement in that subsection for the completion of a comparison of costs and operational effectiveness if the Secretary includes in the submittal a certification of each of the following: “(1) That the results of executed tests and existing analyses are sufficient for making a meaningful comparison of the costs and operational effectiveness of the interim armored vehicles referred to in subparagraph (A) of subsection (c)(1) and the medium armored vehicles referred to in subparagraph (B) of such subsection. “(2) That the conduct of a comparative evaluation of those vehicles in a realistic field environment would provide no significant additional data relevant to that comparison. “(3) That the Secretary has evaluated the existing data on cost and operational effectiveness of those vehicles and, taking that data into consideration, approves the obligation of funds for the acquisition of additional interim armored vehicles. “(4) That sufficient resources will be requested in the future-years defense program to fully fund the Army’s requirements for interim brigade combat teams. “(5) That the force structure resulting from the establishment of the interim brigade combat teams and the subsequent achievement of operational capability by those teams will not diminish the combat power of the Army. “(g) Experimentation Program.—The Secretary of the Army shall develop and provide resources for an experimentation program that will— “(1) provide information as to the design of the objective force; and 115 STAT. 1030 “(2) include a formal linkage of the interim brigade combat teams to that experimentation. “(h) Operational Evaluation.—(1) The Secretary of the Army shall conduct an operational evaluation of the initial interim brigade combat team. The evaluation shall include deployment of the team to the evaluation site and team execution of combat missions across the full spectrum of potential threats and operational scenarios. “(2) The operational evaluation under paragraph (1) may not be conducted until the plan for such evaluation is approved by the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation of the Department of Defense. “(i) Limitation on Procurement of Interim Armored Vehicles and Deployment of IBCTs.—(1) The actions described in paragraph (2) may not be taken until the date that is 30 days after the date on which the Secretary of Defense— “(A) submits to Congress a report on the operational evaluation carried out under subsection (h); and “(B) certifies to Congress that the results of that operational evaluation indicate that the design for the interim brigade combat team is operationally effective and operationally suitable. “(2) The limitation in paragraph (1) applies to the following actions: “(A) Procurement of interim armored vehicles in addition to those necessary for equipping the first three interim brigade combat teams. “(B) Deployment of any interim brigade combat team outside the United States. “(3) The Secretary of Defense may waive the applicability of paragraph (1) to a deployment described in paragraph (2)(B) if the Secretary— “(A) determines that the deployment is in the national security interests of the United States; and “(B) submits to Congress, in writing, a notification of the waiver together with a discussion of the reasons for the waiver.”.