ENHANCEMENT OF DEFENSE SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCE AND SECONDARY SOURCE QUALIFICATION.

SEC. 832. ENHANCEMENT OF DEFENSE SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCE AND SECONDARY SOURCE QUALIFICATION. (a) In General.—Section 865 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 (Public Law 118-159; 10 U.S.C. 4811 note) is amended— (1) in subsection (b)— (A) in paragraph (2), by striking “; and” and inserting a semicolon; (B) by redesignating paragraph (3) as paragraph (4); and (C) by inserting after paragraph (2) the following new paragraph: “(3) produce all critical readiness items of supply, including those identified as having sole-source dependencies, excessive lead times, unreasonable pricing, or other supply chain deficiencies; and” ; (2) by redesignating subsections (f) through (j) as subsections (g) through (k), respectively; (3) by inserting after subsection (e) the following new subsection: “(f) Expedited Qualification Panels.— “(1) Each Secretary of a military department shall establish an Expedited Qualification Panel within the military department under the jurisdiction of that Secretary. Each Expedited Qualification Panel shall— “(A) develop standardized templates for expedited Source Approval Requests; and “(B) not later than 14 days after receiving an expedited Source Approval Request— “(i) review the request; and “(ii) based on tiered risk criteria, make a determination with respect to the request which shall consist of— “(I) conditional approval, which may be valid for up to 12 months; “(II) full approval; or “(III) disapproval of the request. “(2) In reviewing and making determinations with respect to Source Approval Requests under paragraph (1), an Expedited Qualification Panel may use the services of designated engineering representatives or equivalent third-party certified engineers when appropriate.” ; and (4) by adding at the end the following new subsection: “(l) Definitions.—In this section: “(1) The term ‘critical readiness items of supply’ has the meaning given the term in section 1733 of title 10, United States Code. “(2) The term ‘non-safety critical items, or non-mission critical items’ includes the following items: “(A) Major risk parts or systems the failure of which is likely to cause structural damage or significant mission degradation and requires finite element modeling, fracture analysis, comparison to similar parts, or similar methods. “(B) Minor risk parts and systems that only have form, fit, and function requirements verified by dimensional coordinate measuring machines, go/no-go gauges, or similar methods. “(C) Low risk parts and systems that are consumable or non-critical, requiring material certification, visual inspections, or similar methods. “(3) The term ‘safety critical items or mission critical items’ means parts or systems the failure of which is likely to cause loss of control, catastrophic failure, or loss of life, and require full qualification, simulation, and physical testing with Engineering Support Activity witnessing.” . (b) [10 U.S.C. 4811 note] Acceptance of Civil Aviation Authority Certification.— (1) In general.—The Secretary of Defense may not conduct a separate review and approval process for aircraft parts and components and repair processes that have been approved by a civil aviation authority under a Parts Manufacturer Approval or Designated Engineering Representative spare or repair certification and approval processes unless— (A) a written justification for such additional review and approval process is approved by the commander of a systems command of a military service; and (B) the Secretary submits such justification to the congressional defense committees. (2) Update to source approval request process.—Not later than June 1, 2026, the Secretary of Defense shall update the Defense Logistics Agency Source Approval Request process to establish a uniform evaluation and acceptance methodology, applicable across all military services, pursuant to which spares or repairs with civil aviation authority approval, as described in paragraph (1), shall be qualified for use on military aircraft that have a civil equivalent without requiring an additional, separate certification from the Department of Defense, regardless of whether such spares or repairs are determined to be safety critical items or mission critical items (as defined in section 865(l) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 (as added by subsection (a))).