CALS (continuous acquisition and life cycle support)

CALS means continuous acquisition and life cycle support. It is a NATO defence-acquisition concept that joins the buying of a system to the support of that system across its whole service life, instead of handling procurement and sustainment as two separate activities.

NATO's glossary of acronyms and abbreviations lists the expansion and associates the term with the NATO Standardization Group (NASG). Suppliers will meet CALS mainly in NATO-related defence work, where it signals that information and support planning are expected to carry on from acquisition into service.

How NATO's glossary defines CALS

The 2013 edition of NATO's glossary, publication AAP-15, expands CALS as "continuous acquisition and life cycle support." The same entry links the term to the NATO Standardization Group. The French equivalent is acquisition et soutien en continu pendant la vie des systèmes. You can read the entry in the NATO AAP-15 glossary.

The French wording is useful for bilingual bid teams. It confirms that the idea is continuity, with acquisition and support running together over the life of a system.

The digital information strategy in the 1994 NATO Logistics Handbook

An earlier NATO document uses a related expression, Computer-aided Acquisition and Logistics Support. The 1994 NATO Logistics Handbook describes CALS as a strategy for capturing, storing and processing technical, logistical, financial, design and manufacturing information digitally.

The handbook states that this information covers a weapon system from early acquisition through to the end of its service life. It names outputs such as:

• engineering specifications
• spare-parts lists
• maintenance manuals

In this older usage, CALS is about how system data is created once and then reused for design, manufacturing, logistics and support.

Variation in allied expansions of CALS

Allied usage is not fully uniform. A UK Ministry of Defence glossary lists "Continuous Acquisition and Life Cycle Support" among the expansions of CALS, alongside older or related computer-aided expansions. The UK JSP 886 glossary shows this range of meanings.

For a bid team, the point is practical. The same four letters can point to a digital-data strategy or to the broader continuity of acquisition and support. The definitions in the solicitation itself decide which one applies.

Checking CALS against NATOTerm

NATO states that NATOTerm is its official terminology database. It is maintained by the NATO Terminology Office, which is part of the NATO Standardization Office. Bid teams that need to confirm how NATO uses a term can start at NATOTerm.

What CALS means for a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts

CALS is a NATO term. A supplier who sees it in a Canadian solicitation with a NATO-related defence context should read the following parts of the solicitation closely:

• the definitions section, to see which expansion of CALS is meant
• the data-deliverable requirements
• the configuration-management provisions
• the through-life support obligations

Answer the requirements as written in the solicitation, and ask the contracting authority to clarify any use of CALS that the definitions leave open.