Initial operating capability or initial operational capability (IOC) is the state achieved when a capability is available in its minimum usefully deployable form. The term is often used in

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

procurement Procurement is the method of discovering and agreeing to terms and purchasing goods, Service (economics), services, or other works from an external source, often with the use of a tendering or competitive bidding process. When a government agenc ...

. The

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

chooses to use the term ''initial operational capability'' when referring to IOC. For a U.S. Department of Defense

military acquisition Military acquisition or defense acquisition is the "bureaucratic management and procurement process", dealing with a nation's investments in the technologies, programs, and product support necessary to achieve its national security strategy and ...

, IOC includes operating the training and maintaining parts of the overall system per

DOTMLPF DOTMLPF (pronounced "dot-mil-p-f") is an acronym for doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, and facilities. It is used by the United States Department of Defense and was defined in the Joint Capabilit ...

, and is defined as:

"In general, attained when some units and/or organizations in the force structure scheduled to receive a system have received it and have the ability to employ and maintain it. The specifics for any particular system IOC are defined in that system’s Capability Development Document (CDD) and Capability Production Document (CPD)."

The date at which IOC is achieved often defines the in-service date (ISD) for an associated

system A system is a group of Interaction, interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment (systems), environment, is described by its boundaries, ...

. Declaration of an initial operating capability may imply that the capability will be developed in the future, for example by modifications or adjustments to improve the system's performance, deployment of greater numbers of systems (perhaps of different types), or testing and training that permit wider application of the capability. Once the capability is fully developed,

full operational capability In military acquisition, full operating capability or full operational capability (FOC) is the completion of a development effort. This is usually preceded by an initial operating capability or initial operational capability (IOC) phase. For the Un ...

may be declared.Defense Acquisition Universit
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1999-03-01 For example, the capability may be fielded to a limited number of users with plans to roll out to all users incrementally over a period (possibly incorporating changes along the way). The point at which the first users begin using the capability is IOC, with FOC achieved when all intended users (by agreement between the developer and the user) have the capability. This does not preclude additional users from obtaining the capability after FOC. Alternatively the specifics of the program may cause a contract and acquisition-defined definition that differs from the concept of available in minimally deployable form, for example IOC on a website, which does not have material production or maintenance, may have been defined as when the training mockup is installed rather than when software or content is ready. Finally, IOC may be an informal voiced usage of opinion on how far the development is, or a casual view that some other event constitutes IOC like when it is first turned on. (Both of these are meaningless to formal program state or contractual actions, but the progress or event are meaningful in other senses.)

References

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External links

* UK Ministry of Defenc
Acquisition Operating Framework
* European Unio

IOC definition for

INSPIRE The following is a thematic list of European Union directives: For a date based list, see the :European Union directives by number Numbering From 1 January 1992 to 31 December 2014, numbers assigned by the General Secretariat of the Council ...

data infrastructure Procurement Military terminology