Priority of supply and force activity designators

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1. Two codes decide who gets the part

When several requisitions compete for the same item, something has to rank them. The manual points to a single instrument for that. It "establishes priorities for filling requisitions based on the purchaser's Force/Activity Designator (F/AD) (established by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS)) and on the Urgency of Need Designator (UND), assigned on the requisition" (SAMM C6.4.1).

The two codes do different jobs. The activity designator is a standing attribute of the country, force or unit, set centrally. The urgency designator is attached to the individual requisition and reflects how badly that item is needed. Together they produce the priority the supply system acts on.

The scale is short. The manual ranks the designators from the first as the highest priority to the fifth as the lowest (SAMM C6.4.1). Five steps, written in Roman numerals, and a partner sits somewhere on that scale whether or not it has ever been shown the assignment.

2. Who can change it

A partner cannot request its own upgrade. The manual routes that through the American command responsible for the region: "Requests to change a foreign country F/AD should be made by the Combatant Commander (CCDR)" (SAMM C6.4.1.1).

The request has to do more than assert urgency. It must follow the format the governing instruction sets, and it "must address the CCDR's plan to alleviate the situation or condition influencing the upgrade request" (SAMM C6.4.1.1). An upgrade is treated as a temporary answer to a described problem, not a permanent status.

Decisions are made by a standing board acting for the Chairman. Under the governing instruction, that board "is chartered to act on the Chairman's behalf to review and act upon requests for changes to a F/AD" (SAMM C6.4.1), and the agency then circulates the outcome to the security cooperation community.

Speed depends on the category. Routine changes are staffed through standard procedures with no stated deadline. For the urgent ones the manual sets a hard clock: the Chairman "will review and provide a decision on all CCDR operational, crisis, or emergency foreign F/AD upgrade requests within 24 hours" (SAMM C6.4.1.2).

3. The assignment is controlled information

A country's position on the scale is not published. The manual treats it as controlled unclassified information, releasable "only to the recipient country and to U.S. forces or agencies with the need to know" (SAMM C6.4.1.3).

Two further limits follow. "F/AD assignments to a specific country are not released to other foreign countries." And the aggregate is treated more heavily than its parts: "Compilations of foreign F/AD assignments, combining two or more foreign countries or territories, are classified SECRET" (SAMM C6.4.1.3).

That second rule is the one worth noticing. A list of where several partners sit relative to each other is a different thing from any single entry on it, and it is classified accordingly.

4. The code that outranks the scale

There is a mechanism that sits above the ordinary ranking. The manual identifies two families of project code used in this community, and gives one of them precedence: "For processing purposes, requisitions with a CJCS 9-series project code will be ranked above all other requisitions with the same F/AD and UND" (SAMM C6.4.2).

The other family does nothing to the queue. It exists so that a named effort can be tracked through the system, and the manual is explicit that it has no effect on how materiel is allocated. Two codes that look alike therefore behave in opposite ways, and only one of them moves a requisition.

5. What happens to an ordinary requisition

Priority decides sequence. It does not by itself produce stock. For a requisition that is not attached to a cooperative arrangement, the manual describes an inventory control point that "generally issues the assets down to the item's reorder point level" (SAMM C6.4.3.1).

Below that level, four routes are available, subject to the codes assigned to the case line.

• The control point director may authorize issue below the reorder point, where the item can be readily procured, assets are due in from contract, or support to American forces is not jeopardized.
• The item manager may place the requirement on backorder, which becomes eligible for release once the procurement lead time has elapsed.
• The item manager may start an immediate procurement action.
• Where the item is supported by direct vendor delivery, a prime vendor or contractor custody inventory, the requisition may be processed without delay, provided the contract allows such orders.

Each of those has a different duration, and none of them is visible from the case document. A line that reads identically on two cases can therefore behave very differently depending on the stock position behind it.

6. Where the priority actually bites

Priority matters most in the arrangement designed to draw on American stocks. Under a cooperative logistics arrangement, requirements "are satisfied on the same basis as U.S. Force requirements in accordance with the country's F/AD and Uniform Material Movement and Issue Priority System (UMMIPS)" (SAMM C6.4.3.2).

That is a strong statement, and the manual immediately qualifies what carries it: "The F/AD identifies the priority that is given to a purchaser's request" (SAMM C6.4.3.2). Equal treatment with American forces is equal treatment at the partner's own designator, not at the designator of the unit next to it in the warehouse.

How that arrangement is funded and stocked is set out in cooperative logistics supply support arrangements.

7. What a supplier should take from it

Delivery promises made on a spares line rest on an allocation rule the seller does not control. The same part, ordered on the same day by two partners, can move in a different order because their designators differ.

Because the designator is controlled information, a supplier will often not be told what it is. What can be established is whether the requirement is being ordered through an arrangement that carries priority at all, and whether a project code applies. Those are answerable questions, and they change a schedule more than expediting does.

Key terms

F/AD	Force or activity designator, ranked I to V, assigned by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. SAMM C6.4.1.
UND	Urgency of need designator, assigned on the individual requisition rather than to the country.
UMMIPS	The priority system under which requisitions are sequenced and time standards applied.
JMPAB	The board that reviews and acts on designator change requests for the Chairman.
Project code	A marker on a requisition; the 9-series outranks others at the same designator and urgency.

Every statement above links to the document behind it. The full source list for this piece is on the sources page.

This page describes public United States government programs for general information. It is not legal, regulatory or procurement advice, and it does not address the facts of any particular case.

How Sentfore supports this

Supply priority decides when a part moves, and it is set a long way from the place the part is needed. Sentfore provides secure transport, protective security and site support for defense programs in difficult environments, and its principals have worked on overseas defense and security programs. Requirements can be sent through the contact page.