Technology Development

Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD)

Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) examines the military utility and provides an assessment of new technology to clearly establish its operational utility and system integrity. The demonstration introduces operational concepts utilizing this new technology to solve important military problems and facilitates technology transition. A JCTD may be a substitute for a formal Capabilities Based Assessment (CBA). For Acquisition Category (ACAT) II and below programs, Initial Capabilities Documents (ICD) are not required when the mission need is identified via the JCTD. [1]

Website: OSD for Research and Engineering

Guidebook: DoD Prototyping Guidebook, v2.0 Nov 2019

A Military Utility Assessment (MUA) is completed at the end of a JCTD demonstration. MUAs that do not contain the critical elements of information presented in an ICD (description of the capability gap(s); associated tasks, conditions, and operational performance standards/metrics; and how the material and non-material approaches and analyses from the JCTD addressed these factors) will be augmented with a final JCTD demonstration report to qualify the results as equivalent to an ICD. The JCTD demonstration report is used to support the development and subsequent Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) approval of the Capability Development Document (CDD) or Capability Production Document (CPD).

AcqLinks and Resources:

Updated: 6/19/2021

Rank: G1

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