Altor guide · 2026-09-07

CDRLs and DD Form 1423: getting deliverables right the first time

The hardware CLIN is priced. The statement of work says the contractor will provide packaging data and a transportability report as required. Award happens. The first data drop is late and missing the models the Data Item Description asked for. The program office says it was always on the exhibit. The contractor says it was a sentence in Section C.

That is a data problem, not a hardware problem. DD Form 1423 is how the Department of Defense orders data. A sentence in the statement of work is not a CDRL.

What the regulation actually requires

DD Form 1423 is the Contract Data Requirements List, the CDRL. The official edition date is 22 February 2024. DFARS 215.470(b) is the trigger. When data are required to be delivered under a contract, the solicitation includes DD Form 1423. DFARS 204.7101 states that the form is always an exhibit, not an attachment. Block B is the exhibit letter. Block 1 numbers the data items under that letter, A001 through A999.

DoDM 5010.12, Acquisition and Management of Contractor-Prepared Data, 21 November 2025, replaced DoD 5010.12-M from May 1993. Section 5 is the block by block instruction.

Block 4 is the authority. Enter the Data Item Description number, the DID, that defines format and content. DoDM 5010.12 tells the requiring activity to search the ASSIST database so the DID cited on the form is active. Block 2 title must match the DID title. Block 5 points at the statement of work, performance work statement, or statement of objectives paragraph that generates the work.

MIL-HDBK-245E with Change 1, dated 12 September 2022, is guidance for writing the statement of work. Tasks live in the statement of work. Format, content, and delivery of the data live on the CDRL with the DID. Do not order, describe, or discuss CDRL data in the statement of work.

Block 16 is remarks. That is where the DID is tailored. DoDM 5010.12 is plain. Citing every paragraph of a published DID often raises cost and delay. Block 16 identifies which paragraphs are not required. You cannot expand a DID in remarks. If the published DID is too narrow, the path is a one-time DID. ASREQ and ASGEN need an explanation in Block 16 so the offeror can price. Approval code A needs the government review window and the contractor resubmittal window in Block 16. Block 9 is the distribution statement. DoDM 5010.12 wants the exact statement text in Block 16.

Blocks 17 and 18 are for the offeror. Block 17 is the price group. Four groups sit on the reverse of the form. Block 18 is the estimated total price for delivering that data item as specified. DFARS 215.470(c) adds a duplicate-data rule. The contract should not require data the contractor has already delivered, or is already obligated to deliver, under another contract, unless the government is paying only the cost of duplication.

A worked example from the packaging family. DI-PACK-80880D, Transportability Report, is the format and content for the work in MIL-STD-1366 paragraph 4.5 on transportability problem items. The DID wants dimensions, weight, test results, and, when available, CAD models. Apply it at least 90 days before each major milestone. Army programs often route that report through SDDCTEA. Air Force programs go to ATTLA. That CDRL is not the ATTLA certification letter. The letter is a separate airlift product. The report is the contract data item that feeds the review.

Military packaging data follows the same pattern. MIL-STD-2073-1 paragraph 6.3 says that when the government needs the data, the applicable DIDs must be listed on DD Form 1423.

A CDRL does not classify the material, pick a packing instruction, or sign a Shipper's Declaration. 49 CFR 173.22 still places classification on the offeror for a regulated shipment.

The mistake people make

Desks copy last year's exhibit into this year's proposal. Block 4 still cites a superseded DID. ASSIST was not opened. Block 16 is blank, so the contractor is on the hook for every paragraph in the current DID, including models and tests they did not price. Frequency is ASREQ with no remark, so as required has no date, no event, and no quantity.

They write new content into Block 16 because the DID felt thin. That is not tailoring. DoDM 5010.12 does not let you expand a published DID in remarks.

They bury the data requirement in the statement of work and never put a CDRL on the exhibit. They file the form as an attachment. They staple an ATTLA letter to the file and treat DI-PACK-80880D as satisfied. They treat a Shipper's Declaration or an SDDG as a CDRL. Those are shipment documents. They leave Blocks 17 and 18 blank, then discover at award that the data was never priced.

How to fix it

Open the current DD Form 1423, edition 22 February 2024. Open DoDM 5010.12, Section 5. Map every statement of work task that produces data to a CDRL line. Block 5 gets the paragraph. Block 4 gets the current DID from ASSIST. Block 2 gets the DID title, not a nickname.

Write Block 16 before anyone prices the line. Tailor down. Explain ASREQ. Put the approval clocks, addressees, and delivery method in writing. If contractor format is allowed, say so there. Have the offeror complete Blocks 17 and 18 against the tailored DID, not against a memory of last year's report.

Keep the other products in their own lanes. ATTLA, AFMAN 24-604, the IATA DGR, and an SDDG do not replace a CDRL, and a CDRL does not replace them.

Do not tender a data drop from a copy of the last contract's exhibit. The reviewer is grading this DID, this Block 16, and this due date.

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