The transition from IOC to FOC is outlined as part of the DoD acquisition contract, but under statute it means, "We've got at least one unit with associated ser

The transition from IOC to FOC is outlined as part of the DoD acquisition contract, but under statute it means, "We've got at least one unit with associated services being run by the customer at at least one location." That's not a very high bar. Today, the deployment of a weapons system involves a lot of integration with the existing information technology stack, for "network centric warfare" or whatever the new buzzword is for "using high speed data links for over-the-horizon kills." In addition to the systems integration, you're usually debugging the human processes such as training and maintenance throughout. That's where the bugs shake out in the transition from IOC->FOC.