Clauses · DFARS · Ethics and integrity
DFARS 252.225-7039 Defense Contractors Performing Private Security Functions Outside the United States
Does the regulation require it to flow down?
Yes
Paragraph (f) directs the Contractor to include the substance of the clause, including paragraph (f), in subcontracts when the subcontract involves performance of private security functions outside the United States in one of the designated areas. Because (f) reinserts itself, the obligation runs the full length of the security subcontract chain — which is the point: subcontracted guard force is exactly the layer 32 CFR part 159 was written to reach. Paragraph (e) closes the loop from the other direction: your obligations are not reduced by a higher- or lower-tier contractor's failure, nor by any lapse in Government oversight.
- Form
- substance, including paragraph (f) itself — self-perpetuating
- Reaches
- all tiers
Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-05 · edition JAN 2023 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗
What it makes you produce
6 items for your checklist, slowest first.
A program you have to be running2
You are either running it or you are not, and what the prime asks for is the date it started.
A private security operation run to 32 CFR part 159 — personnel screened and accounted for, weapons authorized, incidents reported under the theater commander's rules
DFARS 252.225-7039(c)(1)A management system conforming to ANSI/ASIS PSC.1-2012 or ISO 18788, the two standards the clause names for private security operations
DFARS 252.225-7039(c)(4)
A state you have to be in, in a government system2
The record has to be posted before the prime can see it, and posting is not the same day as being ready.
Every weapon carried by, or available to, your private security personnel registered in SPOT, the Government's synchronized predeployment and operational tracker
DFARS 252.225-7039(c)(1)(ii)Armored vehicles, helicopters and other military vehicles you operate identified and registered in the same tracker
DFARS 252.225-7039(c)(1)(iii)
Something you write2
Days to weeks, and nobody outside your company has to agree to it.
Records of the people performing private security work — registering, processing, accounting for, managing and overseeing them
DFARS 252.225-7039(c)(1)(i)- DFARS 252.225-7039(c)(1)(iv)
An incident report to the rules the Combatant Commander sets
Owed each time a weapon is discharged by or against your personnel, someone is attacked, killed or injured, property is destroyed by your personnel, or an active non-lethal countermeasure is used
When it is used
DFARS 225.302-6 prescribes it INSTEAD OF FAR 52.225-26 in solicitations and contracts — expressly including those using FAR part 12 procedures for commercial products and commercial services — when private security functions are performed outside the United States in one of five designated settings: a contingency operation; a combat operation designated by the Secretary of Defense; another significant military operation designated jointly by the Secretaries of Defense and State under 32 CFR part 159; a peace operation as defined in Joint Publication 3-07.3; or another military operation or exercise designated by the Combatant Commander. No dollar threshold and no COTS carve-out appears in the prescription. 'Private security functions' means guarding personnel, facilities, or property, and any activity for which personnel are required to carry weapons. Note the substitution rule: if you receive both 52.225-26 and 252.225-7039 on a DoD order, the DFARS clause is the one that applies.
Read closely
(c)(2) adds the briefing every person gets before working — qualification, training, screening and security under 32 CFR part 159, host country law, the commander's orders, and the rules on the use of force — and (c)(3) is full cooperation with any Government investigation, defined to include producing employees for interview. (b) narrows all of it to the five designated areas, and performance wholly inside the United States is outside the prescription entirely. (c)(4) names the two standards and stops there; it does not say who checks conformity.
The 3 templates that name it, with the line
Source: acquisition.gov, DFARS 252.225-7039, DFARS 225.302-6 and DFARS 212.301(f) (verified 2026-08-05)
This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.