Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (DARC)

The Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (DARC) is the Department of Defense body responsible for maintaining the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) and for representing the defense acquisition community in joint rulemaking with the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council (CAAC) on the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). The DARC is the primary regulatory authority for the rules that govern the more than $400 billion in contracts the Department of Defense awards annually.

What is the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council?

The DARC is established under the authority of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act and DoD Directive 5135.1. It is chaired by the Director of Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy (DPAP) within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (USD(A&S)). Its membership includes senior acquisition policy officials from the military departments (Army, Navy, Air Force) and the major defense agencies.

The DARC has two primary regulatory functions. First, it acts jointly with the CAAC as co-member of the FAR Council, participating in the development and revision of the uniform FAR text that applies across all federal agencies. Second, it independently develops and maintains the DFARS, which supplements the FAR with defense-specific rules, clauses, and procedures that apply to DoD contracting. The DFARS covers topics including:

• Acquisition of major weapon systems and defense-unique items.
• Defense industrial base security and supply chain risk management.
• Progress payments and contract financing specific to defense contracts.
• Safeguarding covered defense information under DFARS clause 252.204-7012.
• Specialty metals, specialty materials, and domestic sourcing requirements under the Berry Amendment.
• Cost accounting standards for large defense contractors.

DFARS rulemaking follows the same notice-and-comment process as FAR rulemaking, published in the Federal Register as proposed and interim rules. The DARC also issues DFARS Procedures, Guidance, and Information (PGI), which is a non-regulatory companion to the DFARS containing best practices and procedural guidance.

Why it matters for contractors

Any contractor pursuing DoD business must treat the DFARS as a parallel regulatory framework of equal importance to the FAR. DFARS clauses often impose obligations -- cybersecurity standards, counterfeit parts prevention, specialty metals sourcing, cost accounting -- that have no civilian-agency equivalent. Failing to identify and comply with applicable DFARS clauses is one of the most common sources of contract compliance risk for contractors transitioning from civilian to defense work.

DARC rulemaking activity is the leading indicator of where DoD compliance requirements are heading. Monitoring proposed DFARS rules in the Federal Register -- particularly those implementing new statutory requirements from the National Defense Authorization Act -- gives contractors early notice of obligations that will appear in solicitations 12 to 24 months later.

Example

Congress includes a provision in the NDAA requiring DoD to impose new supply chain cybersecurity requirements on defense contractors. The DARC drafts a proposed DFARS rule, publishes it for a 60-day comment period, and after adjudicating comments, issues a final rule that adds a new DFARS clause to all applicable solicitations. Contractors who tracked the rulemaking from the proposed-rule stage had 18 months to prepare their compliance programs before the clause appeared in live solicitations. Contractors who first encountered the requirement in an RFP had weeks to respond.