Wages, bonds and the rulebook
What is DFARS?
Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement
DFARS is the Department of Defense supplement to the FAR — it does not replace the FAR but adds DoD-specific policy and clauses on top of it, and its section numbers mirror the FAR part they supplement.
Also written as: defense FAR supplement, DFARS clause, DoD acquisition rules.
The numbering is deliberately parallel: DFARS 219 supplements FAR Part 19, DFARS 252 holds the clauses that correspond to FAR Part 52. A DoD solicitation typically carries both FAR and DFARS clauses, and the DFARS ones are where defence-specific obligations live.
The requirements that most often surprise a commercial firm entering DoD work are in this supplement: cybersecurity and controlled unclassified information handling, item identification and valuation, domestic sourcing rules that go beyond the governmentwide baseline, and specialised inspection and packaging requirements.
Each military department and defence agency may also issue its own supplement below DFARS. If you sell to DoD, the applicable rules are FAR, plus DFARS, plus whatever the component adds.
There is a second document worth knowing about: the Procedures, Guidance and Information companion, usually called PGI. It is not regulation and does not create obligations on a contractor, but it is where DoD explains to its own contracting officers how the DFARS rules are meant to be applied — which makes it useful for understanding why a buyer is asking for something.
What this means when you bid
A DoD contract is not a federal contract with a different letterhead. Budget time to read the DFARS clauses, particularly the cybersecurity ones.
DFARS compared with the terms it gets confused with
DFARS vs FAR
The FAR is the governmentwide baseline; DFARS adds DoD-specific requirements to it and never stands alone.
What FARmeans →Where this definition comes from
Federal contracting is one of the few fields where the authoritative answer is free, public and one click away. These are the sources this page is built from — go and read them.
- DFARS→
Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement.
- Federal Acquisition Regulation→
The full FAR, as published at acquisition.gov (48 CFR chapter 1).
This page explains a term in plain English and cites the authority it comes from. It is not legal advice, and the regulation governs where this page and the regulation differ.
Free tools for government contractors
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DFARS— common questions
- What is DFARS?
- DFARS is the Department of Defense supplement to the FAR — it does not replace the FAR but adds DoD-specific policy and clauses on top of it, and its section numbers mirror the FAR part they supplement.
- What is the difference between DFARS and FAR?
- The FAR is the governmentwide baseline; DFARS adds DoD-specific requirements to it and never stands alone.
- Why does DFARS matter when you are bidding?
- A DoD contract is not a federal contract with a different letterhead. Budget time to read the DFARS clauses, particularly the cybersecurity ones.
Related terms
- FAR — Federal Acquisition Regulation
- CPARS — Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System
- Firm-fixed-price — Firm-Fixed-Price contract (FFP)