Check That the Buy Delivers Components and Rights
The Supplier Contract Pattern
Companion to You Are Not the Warfighter · Updated 2026-09-29
Use this before a Warwright team buys for a system the Integrator Sort put in lane III or IV. Check that the buy delivers components and rights. A closed integrated system fails the check. Worked in “Buy Components, Interfaces, and Rights From Industry.”
The Supplier Contract Pattern: seven separately priced line items, checked against the draft statement of work.
| Line item | What it has to cover | In the draft? | Price | Gap, and who resolves it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Components | Screened for origin: FY2020 NDAA sec. 848, the American Security Drone Act, 10 U.S.C. § 4872 for magnets, and the Blue List for drone components | |||
| 2. Interface documentation | Major interfaces designated, defined, and delivered with the documentation a third party needs to integrate components (10 U.S.C. §§ 4401–4403, as amended by FY2026 NDAA sec. 1832), with machine-readable interface syntax | |||
| 3. Data rights | Government purpose rights in interface data; the operation, maintenance, installation, and training data the statute already provides; source code and toolchain for software; negotiated terms for commercial items, whose default license gives far less | |||
| 4. Repair rights | Repair data, diagnostic software, tools, and warranty terms that allow organic repair, on fair and reasonable terms | |||
| 5. Test data | The supplier’s results with their conditions and Distance to the Fight, and the right to run and share the team’s own tests | |||
| 6. Provenance | A bill of materials with origin for covered components, and firmware versions and signing | |||
| 7. Support agreement | Reach-back engineering, response times, a sustainment price after the builders rotate, and escrow if the supplier exits |
Put a price on every right. Never try to take a right without paying for it. Apply every line to new entrants exactly as to established primes. The team fills in the gaps. The contracting officer and counsel decide every clause.