General Expectations:The Life-Cycle Sustainment Plan (LCSP) is the program's primary management tool to satisfy the Warfighter's sustainment requirements through the delivery of a product support package. Development of a life-cycle product support strategy and plan are critical steps in the delivery of the product support package. The LCSP remains an active management tool throughout the operations and sustainment of the system, and the program must continually update the LCSP to ensure sustainment performance satisfies the Warfighter's needs.
*The logistics elements and any sustainment process contracts/agreements to attain and sustain the maintenance and support needed for materiel availability
The contents of this annotated outline are applicable DoD-wide and are intended to stimulate critical thinking about the necessary product support elements required for an effective plan. The program may include, in the annex section, any additional Service-specific requirements and implementation details it deems critical to the delivery of the product support package. NOTE: If, as a Program Manager or Product Support Manager and author of an LCSP, you are inclined to cut-and-paste portions of this outline into your plan in a boiler-plate effort to satisfy your next milestone review, you will NOT satisfy the spirit or intent of this outline.
The LCSP is expected to evolve throughout the acquisition process with the maturity of the system and clarity for the program's life-cycle product support strategy. Additionally, it may be tailored based on varying entry points in the acquisition process. For example, a new system entering the acquisition process at Milestone C (a COTS capability, for instance) may have minimal requirements to consider in accomplishing Table 3-2 and the statutory and regulatory compliance of Table 6-1.
The primary audience for the LCSP is the program office. This annotated outline is structured to enable the program office to communicate and collaborate with other stakeholders in both the acquisition and sustainment communities. The program's logisticians, led by the Product Support Manager, must collaborate with other functional areas to ensure alignment among the LCSP and other critical program documents, including the Acquisition Strategy, Systems Engineering Plan, and Technical Data Rights Strategy. The Sustainment Quad Chart is the primary vehicle for summarizing the program's product support planning to stakeholders outside the program. The LCSP must support and provide the detail behind the summary information presented on the Sustainment Quad Chart.
Among the key stakeholders are the Product Support Integrators and Providers. The LCSP is a useful tool in defining statements of work, performance objectives, and incentives in requests for proposal, contracts, and performance-based agreements with organic support providers.
NOTIONAL INFORMATION: Tables and figures are provided with notional information. This information is illustrative only and not intended to proscribe or constrain the program office in documenting information it deems essential to its plan. The column headings for tables depict the minimum information required, but programs may add information to suit its unique management needs. Text to amplify information in figures and tables is encouraged to provide clarity.
Additional guidance, including the lessons learned, can be found in Section 5.1.2.2 of the Defense Acquisition Guide. The latest formats (including examples) for the various tables and figures can be found on this web site.
