Clauses · FAR · Administration and definitions
FAR 52.243-2 Changes-Cost-Reimbursement
Does the regulation require it to flow down?
No
No flow-down mandate: neither the clause nor FAR Part 43 requires a prime to insert it in subcontracts. Primes mirror it so a Government change order can be pushed to the cost-type sub on the same terms. Lockheed CORPDOC 4A and the Valley Tech subcontract both condition it correctly ('Applies if this is a cost-reimbursement contract'); RTX and Raytheon TC002 do the same. BAE's flow-down, by contrast, replaces paragraph (a) wholesale with a broader unilateral right in the name of the 'BAE SYSTEMS Procurement Representative', including adjustments to quantities and delivery schedules and a duty to 'comply immediately'.
A clause can reach your subcontract without a mandate. Once it is in your document, it is a contract term all the same. The missing mandate is a fact about the regulation. It is not a ruling on your order.
Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-05 · edition AUG 1987 (Basic; Alternates I, II, III and V all APR 1984; Alternate IV is [Reserved]) · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗
What it makes you produce
One item for your checklist.
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.
A written assertion of the right to an equitable adjustment within 30 days of receiving the written change order, with the changed-work costs segregated from the first day
FAR 52.243-2(c)
When it is used
FAR 43.205(b)(1): insert when a cost-reimbursement contract for SUPPLIES is contemplated. No dollar threshold. Requirement type picks the alternate: services without supplies = Alt I; services with supplies = Alt II; construction = Alt III; research and development = Alt V. Alternate IV is [Reserved] on the clause page as read 2026-08-05 and is not prescribed at 43.205(b). Commercial acquisitions do not use this clause — Part 12 supplies 52.212-4(c), and cost-reimbursement is in any case rare under Part 12.
Read closely
(e) is the paragraph to read before spending: the estimated cost and, on an incrementally funded order, the funds allotted move only by written modification, and until one issues there is no obligation to continue past the point the Limitation of Cost or Limitation of Funds clause sets. A change order alone does not fund the change. On cost-type work the adjustment is proved out of the accounting system that also has to survive an incurred-cost audit.
Alternates
Alt I · APR 1984
FAR 43.205(b) — services, no supplies furnished.
Alt I substitutes paragraph (a) for services with no supplies — description of services, time of performance, place of performance — so what may be changed moves and the 30-day assertion behind a claim does not.
Alt II · APR 1984
FAR 43.205(b) — services with supplies furnished.
Alt II substitutes paragraph (a) with the services and supplies categories together; it widens the list of changeable things rather than the record that supports an adjustment.
Alt V · APR 1984
FAR 43.205(b) — research and development requirement.
Alt V edits two subparagraphs of the basic paragraph (a) for research and development work — drawings, designs and specifications, and the place of inspection, delivery and acceptance — and leaves the adjustment machinery untouched.
The 4 templates that name it, with the line
Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.243-2 (basic paragraphs (c), (d), (e) and every alternate designator read individually), FAR 43.205(b), FAR Part 43, FAR 52.212-4(c) (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.