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Clauses · FAR · Pricing and audit

FAR 52.215-15 Pension Adjustments and Asset Reversions

Does the regulation require it to flow down?

Yes

(d): 'The Contractor shall include the substance of this clause in all subcontracts under this contract that meet the applicability requirement of FAR 15.408(g).'

Form
substance
Reaches
all tiers (the substance carries the flow-down paragraph itself)

Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-04 · edition OCT 2010 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗

What it makes you produce

2 items for your checklist, slowest first.

  1. Something you write

    Days to weeks, and nobody outside your company has to agree to it.

    • Written notice to the buyer as soon as the company determines it will terminate a defined-benefit pension plan or otherwise recapture pension fund assets

      FAR 52.215-15(a)

  2. Nothing to send now

    It does not hold the order. It decides what money moves later — what you can claim, what can be claimed from you, and what can be held back — and none of that changes after signature.

    • The Government's equitable share of a pension surplus its contract cost helped fund, computed on the rules at 48 CFR 9904.413-50(c)(12) and settled as a refund or a credit

      FAR 52.215-15(c)

When it is used

Enters the prime's contract when certified cost or pricing data are anticipated or when cost determinations (pre- or post-award) will be subject to FAR Part 31 (15.408(g)) — in practice, negotiated and cost-type contracts. Flows down to subcontracts meeting the same applicability. It only bites sponsors of a defined-benefit pension plan.

Read closely

Paragraph (b) covers the segment-closing, plan-termination and benefit-curtailment cases. A company whose only retirement plan is a defined-contribution one has no event here to report.

The 12 templates that name it, with the line
143CORPDOC 3A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Fixed Price Non-Commercial Items under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 136155CORPDOC 4A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Cost-Reimbursement/T&M Subcontracts under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 142233RTX Flowdown of U.S. Government Contract Clauses Under U.S. Government ContractsRTXline 1110105Raytheon TC-002 — Supplement 1: Government Contract Provisions from the FARRTXline 215166Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-001 — U.S. Government Firm Fixed Price Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2213166Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-003 — U.S. Government T&M Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2159168Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-004 — U.S. Government Cost Reimbursement Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2248255GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-005 — General Provisions, Firm Fixed Price PO under U.S. Government Contract (Non-Commercial)General Dynamicsline 943243GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-048 — T&M Purchase Orders for Non-Commercial Items in Support of a U.S. Government ContractGeneral Dynamicsline 1866240L3Harris LGL-50.F1 — General T&C and Flowdown Clauses for Other Than Commercial Products/Services under a U.S. Government ContractL3Harrisline 1429273BAE Systems Inc. USGOVA — FAR/DFARS Flow Down Provisions for Subcontracts/Purchase Orders under a U.S. Government (DoD) Prime ContractBAE Systemsline 558178AAR Component Services NY — U.S. Government Contract FAR and DFARS Clauses Incorporated by ReferenceAAR Corpline 410

Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.215-15 and 15.408(g) (verified 2026-08-04)

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.