A senior Pentagon official this week issued a memo calling for all documents related to major defense acquisition programs to be uploaded to a searchable database.
In the Sept. 25, 2012, memo, Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall writes:
The acquisition information required by the current Department of Defense (DoD) Instruction 5000.02 is not routinely stored in an accessible manner to support milestone decision-making or other analytical uses across the Defense Acquisition Community. In 2012, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics piloted and deployed the Acquisition Information Repository (AIR), a searchable document repository for the systematic consolidation of this information.
The UNCLASSIFIED AIR reached initial operational capability in February. A SIPRNet AIR capability should reach initial operating capability later this year. The AIR will store final milestone documents for Pre-Major Defense Acquisition Programs, Unbaselined Major Automated Information Systems, Acquisition Category (ACAT) ID, ACAT IAM, and Special Interest Programs with potential to expand to include ACATIC and IAC programs later.
The attached matrix identifies the Office of Primary Responsibility (OPR) for each document and the document types each OPR will initially upload into the AIR. This list will be updated as necessary on my direction. OPRs are responsible for loading documents, appropriately marking documents, setting document permissions, and managing access to their documents. It is important that OPRs load documents in a timely fashion and with appropriate accessibility. Effective immediately, OPRs will upload into AIR all UNCLASSIFIED milestone documents approved after the date of this memorandum within 5 business days of their formal approval. The AIR will provide the capability to generate a standard report of loaded (approved) documents for a program to facilitate assessment of program planning and statutory compliance in support of milestone decisions.