USAF ILA Handbook - ACC Practice Center - Defense Acquisition ...

epresent how a product support strategy is developed, implemented, and maintained to
ensure effective system life-cycle support. Assessments provide MDAs with verification
that these processes critical to life-cycle logistics have been planned and implemented
effectively.
2.5. Air Force product support and sustainment guidance is articulated in the policy directives
and instructions indicated in Section 1.4. Air Force product support strategies must focus on
integrating effective logistics processes on all weapon systems throughout their life cycles while
improving the warfighter’s ability to perform the mission. Product support is defined as the
package of support functions necessary to maintain the readiness and operational effectiveness of
weapon systems, subsystems, and support systems. Therefore, product support planning must
begin early in the acquisition phase of a weapon system, preferably in the Concept and
Technology Development Phase, and provide for a seamless transition to sustainment.
2.5.1. The Air Force product support philosophy integrates the process for the
development and ongoing review and maintenance of a product support strategy during
the acquisition and sustainment phases of the weapon system life cycle. Achieving a lifecycle
focus on weapon system sustainment cost requires a seamless, integrated,
continuing process to assess and improve product support strategies.
3. Using the ILA Handbook.
3.1. Use of Handbook.
This handbook is designed for the use of ILA team members (See Section 5.0) to
determine the sufficiency of program product support and sustainment planning and
implementation for upcoming acquisition milestones and major decisions. ILA team assessors
should use the information provided in this handbook to assist them in reviewing specific
logistics support aspects, (e.g., configuration management, maintenance, or manpower) of the
program’s acquisition documentation. The goal of this handbook is to promote high-quality
assessments regardless of the user’s level of experience.
3.2. Scope of Handbook.
This handbook is designed to be used as a tool for conducting ILAs on all Acquisition
Category (ACAT) programs and provides logistics evaluation criteria that can be applied to all
Air Force programs. This document does not take precedence over existing statutes, regulations,
or policy statements. The criteria provided in the checklists are not platform-specific or systemspecific;
rather, they are evaluation elements that should be tailored to the specific program
being assessed and its phase of the life cycle.
3.3. Key Sections of the Handbook.
3.3.1. Section 2 of the ILA Handbook highlights overarching DoD and Air Force
guidance regarding developing and assessing product support strategies. This information
is supplemented with a graphic depiction of selected elements from the Integrated
Defense Acquisition Framework in Appendix A.
3.3.2. Section 4 of the ILA Handbook provides a detailed description of the expectations
for each step of the general assessment process. These steps are supplemented by
Version 1: January 2006 4
Air Force Independent Logistics Assessment Handbook