(a) Project Authorization Required.—
The Secretary of Defense may carry out such military construction projects for innovation, research, development, test, and evaluation as are authorized by law, using funds appropriated or otherwise made available for that purpose.
(b) Submission of Project Proposals.—As part of the defense budget materials for each fiscal year, the Secretary of Defense shall include the following information for each military construction project covered by subsection (a):
(4)
A completed Department of Defense Form 1391 budget justification that includes the original project cost estimate.
(c) Budget Justification Display.—
The Secretary of Defense shall include with the defense budget materials for each fiscal year a consolidated budget justification display that individually identifies each military construction project covered by subsection (a) and the amount requested for such project for such fiscal year.
(d) Application to Military Construction Projects.—
This section shall apply to military construction projects covered by subsection (a) for which a Department of Defense Form 1391 is submitted to the appropriate committees of Congress in connection with the budget of the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2023 and thereafter.
(e) Annual Five-year Plans on Improvement of Innovation Infrastructure.—
(1) Submission.—
Along with the budget for each fiscal year submitted by the President pursuant to section 1105(a) of title 31, each Secretary of a military department and the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the congressional defense committees a plan that describes the objectives of that Secretary to improve innovation infrastructure during the five fiscal years following the fiscal year for which such budget is submitted.
(2) Elements.—Each plan submitted by a Secretary of a military department under paragraph (1) shall include the following:
(A) With respect to the five-year period covered by the plan, an identification of the major lines of effort, milestones, and investment goals of the Secretary over such period relating to the improvement of innovation infrastructure and a description of how such goals support such goals, including the use of—
(iii)
military construction projects for innovation, research, development, test, and evaluation under this section.
(B)
The estimated costs of necessary innovation infrastructure improvements and a description of how such costs would be addressed by the Department of Defense budget request submitted during the same year as the plan and the applicable future-years defense program.
(C)
Information regarding the plan of the Secretary to initiate such environmental and engineering studies as may be necessary to carry out planned innovation infrastructure improvements.
(D)
Detailed information regarding how innovation infrastructure improvement projects will be paced and sequenced to ensure continuous operations.
(3) Incorporation of results-oriented management practices.—Each plan under subsection (a) shall incorporate the leading results-oriented management practices identified in the report of the Comptroller General of the United States titled “Actions Needed to Improve Poor Conditions of Facilities and Equipment that Affect Maintenance Timeliness and Efficiency” (GAO–19–242), or any successor report, including—
(4) Innovative infrastructure defined.—
In this subsection, the term “innovation infrastructure” includes laboratories, test and evaluation ranges, and any other infrastructure whose primary purpose is research, development, test, and evaluation.
(f) Defense Laboratory Modernization Program.—
(1) Using amounts appropriated or otherwise made available to the Department of Defense for research, development, test, and evaluation, the Secretary of Defense may fund a military construction project described in paragraph (4) at any of the following:
(A)
A Department of Defense science and technology reinvention laboratory (as designated under section 4121(b) of this title).
(B)
A Department of Defense federally funded research and development center that functions primarily as a research laboratory.
(C)
A Department of Defense facility in support of a technology development program that is consistent with the fielding of offset technologies as described in section 218 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 (Public Law 114–92; 10 U.S.C. note 4811).
(D)
A Department of Defense research, development, test, and evaluation facility that is not designated as a science and technology reinvention laboratory, but nonetheless is involved with developmental test and evaluation.
(2) Subject to the condition that a military construction project under paragraph (1) be authorized in a Military Construction Authorization Act, the authority to carry out the military construction project includes authority for—
(3)
(A)
The Secretary of Defense shall include military construction projects proposed to be carried out under paragraph (1) in the budget justification documents for the Department of Defense submitted to Congress in connection with the budget for a fiscal year submitted under 1105 of title 31.
(B)
Not less than 14 days prior to the first obligation of funds described in paragraph (1) for a military construction project to be carried out under such paragraph, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the congressional defense committees a notification providing an updated construction description, cost, and schedule for the project and any other matters regarding the project as the Secretary considers appropriate.
(4) The authority provided by paragraph (1) to fund military construction projects using amounts appropriated or otherwise made available for research, development, test, and evaluation is limited to military construction projects that the Secretary of Defense, in the budget justification documents exhibits submitted pursuant to paragraph (3)(A), determines—
(5)
The maximum amount of funds appropriated or otherwise made available for research, development, test, and evaluation that may be obligated in any fiscal year for military construction projects under paragraph (1) is $150,000,000.
(6)
(A)
In addition to the authority provided to the Secretary of Defense under paragraph (1) to use amounts appropriated or otherwise made available for research, development, test, and evaluation for a military construction project referred to in such subsection, the Secretary of the military department concerned may use amounts appropriated or otherwise made available for research, development, test, and evaluation to obtain architectural and engineering services and to carry out construction design in connection with such a project.
(B)
In the case of architectural and engineering services and construction design to be undertaken under this paragraph for which the estimated cost exceeds $4,000,000, the Secretary concerned shall notify the appropriate committees of Congress of the scope of the proposed project and the estimated cost of such services before the initial obligation of funds for such services. The Secretary may then obligate funds for such services only after the end of the 14-day period beginning on the date on which the notification is received by the committees in an electronic medium pursuant to section 480 of this title.
(Added Pub. L. 117–263, div. B, title XXVIII, § 2805(a), Dec. 23, 2022, 136 Stat. 2994; amended Pub. L. 118–159, div. B, title XXVIII, § 2806(a), Dec. 23, 2024, 138 Stat. 2249; Pub. L. 119–60, div. B, title XXVIII, § 2873, Dec. 18, 2025, 139 Stat. 1328.)