Glossary / Acquisition
Joint Capabilities Integration and Development SystemJCIDS
JCIDS is the Department's formal requirements-generation process, owned by the Joint Staff J-8. It produces the documents (ICD, CDD, CPD) that define what a future system must do. JCIDS reviews ensure that proposed capabilities are joint, interoperable, and traceable to validated gaps rather than service-parochial wish lists. The Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) is the senior body that validated the most significant documents. In August 2025 the Secretary of Defense directed that JCIDS be disestablished: the JROC now ranks key operational problems for the joint force, a new Requirements and Resourcing Alignment Board ties them to budgets, and the services validate their own requirements.
Why it matters to your pipeline
Many existing programs still trace back to JCIDS documents, and reading an ICD or CDD tells you what the customer said it needed. For new work, follow the joint operational problems and the services' own requirements processes that replaced it.
When this term shows up in an opening GovSmith finds for you, your vCM explains what it means for that pursuit and does whatever it calls for. You decide; we do the work.
Example
The JROC-validated CDD for the Future Vertical Lift program set speed, range, and payload thresholds that every competing design, including the V-280 Valor, had to meet.
Find out what applies to you
Some terms will matter to your business right away and some won’t for years. A vCM can tell you which are which.