How to find about military contracts in your community

Some time ago, we posted some ways to look at Pentagon contracts in your community. Here's an update as some details have changed.

Each Federal contractor (military or civilian) is assigned a bureaucratic number called a CAGE Code, which should be easy to find by an internet search. Armed (as it were) with a CAGE Code, visit DIBBS, a Defense Logistics Agency website, and search by Awardee CAGE to get a list of some (not necessarily all) of your company's recent DoD contracts. You can even look at the actual purchase orders and see where the order is to be delivered.

Careful study may reveal which weapons system a contract's for. If an NSN is mentioned, that's the National Stock Number of the item supplied, and another DLA website called WebFLIS may tell you more about it.

For example, the CAGE Code for Woodstock's Rotron is 82877. The example on the right is from a 2009 Ametek Rotron contract (no longer on DIBBS which only lists more recent contracts), dated 7/2/2009 for 3 fans. WebFLIS's information for this model of fan reveals that it's a component of the F-16 fighter aircraft.

See also another useful website