Glossary of Defense Acquisition Acronyms and Terms
Department of Defense
Defense Acquisition University
Learning Capabilities Integration Center
Center for Acquisition and Program Management
Fort Belvoir, Virginia
Published by the
Defense Acquisition University Press
Fort Belvoir, Virginia 22060-5565
Acknowledgments
The authors appreciate the assistance of the staff and faculty of the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) in providing acronyms and definitions for consideration in this Fourteenth Edition of the Glossary: Defense Acquisition Acronyms and Terms and offer our special thanks to members of the DAU Visual Arts and Press staff, Benjamin Tyree for editing, and especially Debbie Gonzalez, for her expert proofreading and innovative cover design.
Preface
This is the Fourteenth Edition of the Glossary: Defense Acquisition Acronyms and Terms.
The Glossary: Defense Acquisition Acronyms and Terms, contains most acronyms, abbreviations, and terms commonly used in the systems acquisition process within the Department of Defense (DoD) and defense industries. It focuses on terms with generic DoD application but also includes some Service-unique terms. It has been extensively revised to reflect current acquisition initiatives and policy, and changes in the Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution (PPBE) process and the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS).
Appendix A contains a listing of common abbreviations and acronyms. Appendix B contains definitions of terms used throughout the DoD acquisition community, including terms that have commonality between U.S. and allied acquisition programs.
While the Glossary identifies and highlights many terms, it is not all-inclusive, particularly regarding the military services, defense agencies and other organizationally unique terms. For those, the reader must turn to publications issued by those organizations. The Glossary contains some jargon and buzz-words, but does not attempt to be a "Dictionary of Pentagon-ese."
The Glossary is published for use by students of the Defense Acquisition University (DAU), and others working on defense acquisition matters, including congressional staffs, Pentagon and other headquarters (HQ) staffs, program managers and requirements managers of the Department of Defense, and defense contractors.
Acronyms and abbreviations are generally capitalized for ease of reference. That does not imply they are capitalized in general usage. Readers should follow the style used by their own organizations.
We welcome your feedback on the DAU Glossary. Please email
glossary-content@dau.mil regarding content issues and
glossary-technical@dau.mil for technical issues. Include the address of the relevant page (or pages) in the body of the email for faster processing. Comments can also be addressed to Center for Acquisition and Program Management, Learning Capabilities Integration Center, DAU, 9820 Belvoir Road, Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-5565.