The DoD is looking at revamping its procurement rules to reduce acquisition costs and speed up purchasing of commercial products. In recent years, the Department of Defense has increasingly relied on “currently on the shelf” or COTS purchases to meet the Department’s growing needs. Although its dependency expanded, potential suppliers were stymied and often discouraged by excessively long and complicated evaluation periods.

The DoD spends about $60 billion a year on commercial purchases. Some items, like bathroom tissue, are purely commercial; however, others are of commercial origins but modified for military use. Suppliers of commercial but modified for military use products have found themselves in prolonged battles with Pentagon officials while they establish if the item supplied is commercial or exclusive to the military. The purchasing of commercially available products means that contracts can be negotiated without undergoing the elaborate cost analysis performed for military only purchases.

The proposed rule changes would establish a 10 day window to determine if a product is truly commercial and not exclusive to the military. This comes as good news to prospective suppliers and established vendors experiencing increasing selling costs due to burdensome regulation. If successful, the rules changes will reduce the Pentagon’s acquisition costs and attract new suppliers to the military sector.