DoD Receives New Capabilities Development System
July 11, 2003

A program designed to help Defense Department officials determine what programs and projects to acquire to enhance joint readiness debuted this week.

The Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System, or JCIDS, replaced the existing Requirements Generation System. Approved by Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, JCIDS is a result of Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld’s goal of transforming the DoD’s business practices and warfighting capabilities. According to joint staff officials, JCIDS is designed to foster efficiency, flexibility, creativity and innovation in the acquisition process.

JCIDS enables organizations to define their capability needs while still focusing on national strategy. Under the new program, operators and materiel providers will work together early in the acquisition process to propose materiel solutions that satisfy capability shortfalls more effectively. The system supports DoD’s aim of providing equipment that is used throughout each of America’s armed services and that best meets the needs of future warfighters.

Officials from the Joint Staff, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and more than two dozen organizations in and out of DoD worked to develop JCIDS.

The new CJCS Instruction 3170.01C and CJCS Manual 3170.01 can be found on the Web at http://www.dtic.mil/cjcs_directives. For more information, contact Joint Chiefs of Staff Public Affairs at (703) 695-7678.