123STA T . 223 5PUBLIC LA W 111 –84—O CT. 28 , 2 0 0 9UnitedS t a te s ina pr i o riti z ed m anner t h at in clu des consider - ation o f the imminence of the threat and the le v el of accepta b le ris k;(2) operationall y -effective and cost-effective in providin g protection for E urope , and the United States in the case of long-range missile threats, against current and future I ranian ballistic missile threats; and ( 3 ) interoperable, to the e x tent practical, w ith other compo- nents of missile defense and complementary to the missile defense strategy of the N orth A tlantic T reaty O rganization . (b) CONSTRUC T I ON. — Except as provided in subsection (a), nothing in this section shall be construed as limiting or preventing the Secretary of D efense from pursuing the development or deploy- ment of operationally-effective and cost-effective ballistic missile defense systems in Europe. (c) IN DEP ENDENT ASSESS M ENT.— ( 1 )IN G ENER AL .—Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall enter into a contract with a federally funded research and development center to conduct an independent assessment evaluating the operational-effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the alternative missile defense architecture announced by the P resident on September 1 7 , 200 9 . (2) R EPORT.—Not later than J une 1, 2010, the Secretary shall submit to the congressional defense committees a report on the independent assessment conducted under paragraph (1). SEC.236 .C OMPR E H E N S IV EP LA N F OR T EST AN D EVAL U ATION OF THE B ALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE S Y STEM. (a) PLAN RE Q UIRED.— (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Defense shall establish a comprehensive plan for the developmental and operational testing and evaluation of the ballistic missile defense system and its various elements. (2) PERIOD O F PLAN.—The plan shall cover the period cov- ered by the future-years defense program that is submitted to Congress under section 221 of title 10, United States Code, at or about the same time as the submittal to Congress of the budget of the President for fiscal year 2011. (3) INPUT.—In establishing the plan, the Secretary shall receive input on matters covered by the plan from the following
(A) The Director of the M issile Defense Agency. ( B ) The Director of Operational Test and Evaluation. (C) The operational test components of the military departments. (b) ELEMENTS.—The plan re q uired by subsection (a) shall include, with respect to developmental and operational testing of the ballistic missile defense system, the following: (1) Test and evaluation ob j ectives. (2) Test and evaluation criteria and metrics. (3) Test and evaluation procedures and methodology. ( 4 ) Data requirements. ( 5 ) System and element configuration under test. (6) Approaches to verification, validation, and accreditation of models and simulations. Deadlin e .Co n tr a c t s .
