The Defense Logistics Agency buys aircraft parts every day through short, simple requests for quotation. Most are under $25,000, many go to whoever quotes a fair price and can deliver on time, and none of it requires a lobbyist or a lawyer. This page walks you through it once; after that, every RFQ on PartsAndPlanes shows you the same steps with the numbers filled in.
A CAGE code is the five-character ID the government uses for your company. You get one automatically by registering in SAM.gov (the System for Award Management). Both are free; anyone charging you for them is a middleman.
What to have ready: your legal business name and address exactly as the IRS has them, your EIN, a bank account for payment (EFT), a point of contact, and your NAICS codes (aircraft parts sellers usually use 336413, 423860, or 488190).
Steps: create a Login.gov account → go to SAM.gov → “Get Started” → register an entity for all awards (not just financial assistance) → complete the representations and certifications → submit. SAM assigns your Unique Entity ID immediately and requests your CAGE from DLA; the CAGE usually arrives within 1–2 weeks, occasionally longer if your address needs validation.
Already have a CAGE? Check that SAM is Active, not expired — registrations lapse yearly and DLA cannot award to an expired one. Look yourself up: partsandplanes.com/vendor/your CAGE shows your SAM status and DLA CAGE status side by side.
DIBBS (the DLA Internet Bid Board System) is where DLA posts RFQs and where you submit quotes. It is separate from SAM.
Go to dibbs.bsm.dla.mil → “Vendor Registration” → enter your CAGE. DIBBS checks it against SAM, so wait until your SAM registration is active. You will create a user ID, get a PIN by email, and set up a password. Only one “super user” per CAGE; that person can add others.
Once in, you can search RFQs, download the PDF, and quote. You will also want to accept the DoD consent banner each session — it is the same notice every time.
Every DLA RFQ is a PDF on a standard form. The things that decide whether you should quote are: the quantity and unit, the delivery days after award, FOB (origin means the government pays shipping; destination means you do), where inspection happens, whether the item is restricted to approved sources (the AMSC code), whether it is a small business set-aside, and any QPL, first-article, or ISO 9001 requirement.
On PartsAndPlanes, open any solicitation and those facts are pulled out and translated at the top of the page, with the full PDF below it. The Can you quote it? section lists the approved-source CAGEs for the NSN when the item is restricted.
DLA prints the last several awards for the item right in the RFQ: who won, how many, and the unit price. We extract that table and show it next to the FLIS standard price (what DLA carries the item at). Between those two numbers you can see what the government expects to pay.
Your quote is a unit price plus the delivery days you commit to. Quote what you can honestly deliver — late delivery is how vendors get their past performance dinged. Check the FOB terms before you price: under FOB origin title and risk pass to the government when the shipment leaves your dock, so the government arranges and pays freight and carries the goods in transit — price the part alone. Under FOB destination you pay freight and carry the risk until the consignee signs for it — build shipping and that exposure into the price.
Small quantities (1–5 each) of restricted items often go for well above the FLIS price because only a few sources exist. Open-competition hardware goes for close to it. Surplus is sometimes acceptable and sometimes prohibited — the RFQ says which.
From the RFQ page here, click Quote on DIBBS; it opens that NSN’s solicitation on DIBBS. Sign in, open the RFQ, choose Submit Quote, and fill in: bid type (usually “bid without exception”), unit price, delivery days, whether you are the manufacturer or a dealer, and the part number and CAGE you are supplying. Submit before the return-by date. Micro-purchases (under $15,000) may be awarded before that date, so quote early.
If you are not going to quote, submitting a “No Bid” with a reason is good practice — buyers remember vendors who communicate.
Awards post on DIBBS and in DLA’s award files, which we harvest. Search the NSN here again and the award, the winner, and the price appear in the part’s history — whether or not you won. When you win, the purchase order arrives in DIBBS; delivery, packaging (MIL-STD-2073), and invoicing go through DLA’s systems (WAWF/PIEE), and payment is typically net 30 after acceptance.
Watch an NSN on PartsAndPlanes and we will tell you when the next RFQ for it appears.