With a looming implementation deadline in August, DoD is looking for leniency in the existing anti-Huawei product requirements for defense contractors. The FY2021 National Defense Authorization Act could be a prime vehicle to give the department and its contractors more time to comply with a governmentwide ban on Huawei and other China-made telecommunications equipment.
DoD’s acquisition head, Ellen Lord, says the department needs more time, and worries about unintended consequences. “It is a heavy lift to find all of this equipment everywhere” within two years, Lord says, adding that it could mean “shutting down major portions of our defense industrial base because of one infraction of a Hikvision camera in a parking lot somewhere, at a level-four supplier.”