Adaptive Acquisition Framework (AAF)
The Adaptive Acquisition Framework (AAF) is DoD's acquisition structure under DoDI 5000.02: six pathways (urgent capability, middle tier, major capability, software, defense business systems, and services), each governed by its own instruction and picked to fit what is being bought.
DoDI 5000.02, Operation of the Adaptive Acquisition Framework, organizes DoD acquisition into six pathways: urgent capability acquisition (DoDI 5000.81), middle tier of acquisition (DoDI 5000.80), major capability acquisition (DoDI 5000.85), software acquisition (DoDI 5000.87), defense business systems (DoDI 5000.75), and acquisition of services (DoDI 5000.74).
Tailoring is the framework's operating principle. The program manager proposes a pathway and the decision authority approves it; with that approval a program may also combine pathways, defining the transition points between them and the information each entry point requires. The instruction reached Change 2 in April 2026.
The catch practitioners hit: combining pathways does not move statutory thresholds. DoDI 5000.02 states that thresholds applicable to the program as a whole do not change when multiple pathways are used, so splitting an MDAP-sized effort across pathways buys speed, not exemption.
Regulatory Reference
DoDI 5000.02; DoDI 5000.74; DoDI 5000.75; DoDI 5000.80; DoDI 5000.81; DoDI 5000.85; DoDI 5000.87
RFO Status
The AAF is DoD policy issued under title 10 authorities rather than FAR text, so the FAR Overhaul's model deviations leave it intact; DoD's companion DFARS class deviations, issued December 2025 through March 2026, rewrite contracting regulation, not pathway policy.
Category
Programs & Pathways
How AcqBot Helps
AcqBot maps a requirement against the six pathway entry points under DoDI 5000.02 and drafts the pathway-selection rationale for the acquisition strategy, so the tailoring decision is documented before the first decision review rather than reconstructed after it.
Related glossary entries
SBIR/STTR (Small Business Innovation Research)
SBIR and STTR are congressionally mandated programs requiring federal agencies with large R&D budgets to fund small business innovation through phased awards — feasibility (Phase I), development (Phase II), and commercialization (Phase III), which carries sole-source follow-on authority.
8(a) Business Development Program
The 8(a) Business Development Program, authorized by Section 8(a) of the Small Business Act, gives SBA-certified firms owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals a nine-year term of access to sole-source and competitive set-aside federal contracts under 13 CFR Part 124.
HUBZone Program
The HUBZone program, created by the HUBZone Act of 1997 and run by SBA, steers federal contracts to small businesses that keep their principal office in a historically underutilized business zone and draw at least 35 percent of employees from HUBZone residents.
Women-Owned Small Business Program (WOSB/EDWOSB)
The Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) program, created by section 8(m) of the Small Business Act, lets contracting officers set aside contracts, and make limited sole-source awards, to SBA-certified women-owned small businesses in NAICS codes where SBA finds women-owned firms underrepresented.