New Source Contract Step-by-Step

DLA Aviation primarily purchases military aircraft structural and engine parts. Becoming an approved source for these items can be very time consuming and difficult. The U.S. military services are responsible for engineering authority and configuration management for U.S. military aircraft. This authority includes maintaining an approved source list for critical items. For example, the Air Force must approve new manufacturing sources of F-16 parts. The Navy and the Army now require a minimum of 180 days to evaluate any new sources.

Please go to our Vendor Information Hub DLA Aviation Replenishment Parts, Purchase or Borrow Program Process page for a step by step process on working with us.

Most of the items currently in the Display Room have only one approved source. Increasing competition on these items will reduce their cost. The RPPOB, Replenishment Parts Purchase or Borrow, program works as follows:

1. You select the item you are interested in reverse engineering and notify us of this interest. The part may be from the Parts Catalog or a part from your own research.
   -  Independent research can and should be conducted to look at the historical purchase quantity and price as can be found in https://www.dibbs.bsm.dla.mil/ along with the DLA Acquisition Forecast from DIBBS' Supplier Requirement Visibility Application (SRVA)
2. You request the part by clicking the “DLA Aviation Managed Part Request” on the site https://www.dla.mil/Aviation/Offers/Engineering/RPPOB/.  See RPPOB Request Document (PDF)  for more details.
3. We will research the part requested to determine if it meets the program requirements and inform you if it does not.
4. If it meets the program requirements, then we will send an agreement to you with the listed price and quantity requested.
5. After signing the contract and paying for the item, we ship the sample item to you and you conduct the reverse engineering at your own expense.
6. You prepare a Source Approval Request (SAR)  and submit it to DLA Aviation's Small Business Office (SBO), if no solicitation exists. Please follow the instructions DLA Aviation Source Approval Request Instructions to send the SAR to DLA AVN SBO. Send the SAR to the Buyer if there is an open solicitation.
7. DLA will review your SAR and may forward it to the military service for their review and approval.

No promises of design approval are given or implied. Final approval of your facility as a new source is not a given until the appropriate military service(s) approve your SAR package and test your replicated part through a prototype or spares procurement.

Based on our experience, you must have a significant history of producing items for the Government to achieve SAR approval by the military services. If you do not have a successful contract history, the military services are unlikely to approve any reverse engineered items you submit for approval. In these cases, we suggest that you review the Procurement Gateway for fully competitive items that interest you. Once you successfully bid on and produce some of these items you can then revisit the RPPOB program.