Solving defense supply chain visibility through governed data sharing

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Summary

The DoW needs cost and supply chain visibility across 200,000+ suppliers, but manual data calls and fragmented spreadsheets hinder insight.

Governed data sharing lets every tier of the supply chain publish validated evidence from existing records without exposing source systems.

Building on existing reporting obligations and open protocols, a federated exchange avoids vendor lock-in and costly platform overhauls.

When every tier of the defense supply chain can share governed data with the people who need it, the result is a real-time operating picture that connects cost evidence, supplier status, and production commitments to program and portfolio decisions. That picture does not exist today, but the technology to enable it does. Why the DoW can't see what its supply chain actually costs The Department of War (DoW) cannot see its own supply chain. More than a dozen executive orders and directives since 2020, culminating in the August 2026 Supplier Cost and Pricing Transparency memorandum , now mandate actual cost data, critical supply chain mapping at every tier, and continuous performance visibility across a base of more than 200,000 suppliers. Today, that visibility does not exist. Cost and pricing evidence moves through manual data calls and fragmented spreadsheets. Lower-tier supplier origins are largely unknown. Major acquisition programs slip an average of 3 years , and DoW audits have identified over half a billion dollars in questioned costs on sole-source contracts where the government lacked cost data to negotiate fair prices. The answer is not to wire into every contractor's ERP system. It is to agree on what gets published and automate the publication. Databricks provides the platform to do exactly this, a federated data exchange where every contractor governs its own data in place and publishes only versioned, quality-checked evidence to named recipients under terms both sides accept. Databricks enforces governance, ownership, access controls , CUI markings, lineage, and audit logging, and its OpenSharing protocol moves governed data across organizational boundaries. No central repository holds anyone's raw records. No single vendor controls the pipe. The government gets the validated evidence it needs; contractors can keep their source systems closed. How federated data sharing replaces manual data calls Databricks already powers data intelligence for the Defense Industrial Base and DoW. The platform and open-source standards this solution requires are live production systems today. Adding a governed data product for cost, pricing, and supply chain evidence to the War Data Platform (WDP) is an extension of what's already running, not a new build. Three facts make this a near-term, low-risk move rather than a multi-year transformation bet: The standards are open and proven. The data formats and sharing protocols underpinning this exchange were created by Databricks and contributed to the open-source community. They run at scale across commercial and public-sector environments today. Built-in governance enforces access control, sensitive-data classification, data quality monitoring, and complete audit lineage. Because the underlying formats are fully open-source, recipients consume published evidence without needing to adopt Databricks, eliminating vendor lock-in. The on-ramp scales to every tier. Large primes use Databricks to build automated pipelines from source systems into governed data products. Small and mid-tier suppliers submit via validated intake forms that produce the same governed data contracts. No new accounting systems or special data formats are required. Suppliers report using the cost and pricing information they already keep. The reporting obligation already exists. CSDR reporting, FlexFile submissions, DD Form 1921 cost summaries, and CADE compliance workflows are already contractual requirements. The proposed model automates the publication of data contractors that are already required to produce, replacing redundant manual data calls with a single governed export per contract. The accounting shift is already underway. The Department is moving from government-unique Cost Accounting Standards to GAAP-based accounting, and fixed-price contracts are becoming the default. Both changes require reliable cost data drawn from contractors' existing books and records. The exchange is the mechanism that makes GAAP-based reporting practical at scale, turning data that contractors already maintain into governed evidence the government can act on.

What each stakeholder gets from the exchange For the DoW, the exchange creates a real-time operating picture connecting cost evidence, supplier status, and production commitments to program and portfolio decisions. Acquisition leaders gain the continuous visibility that executive orders and multiple directives have demanded but that manual processes have never delivered. For the Defense Industrial Base, the exchange replaces dozens of redundant data calls per program with a single publication path. Built-in access controls and CUI markings travel with the data, so contractors publish evidence once and know exactly who can see it and under what terms. For the lower-tier supply base, the exchange provides a low-friction entry point. Small and mid-tier suppliers submit through validated intake forms that produce the same governed data contracts as large primes. No complex platform deployment or new accounting system is required. Contractual benefits offered by the government to a prime flow down through the supply chain, ensuring small manufacturers are not squeezed by upstream sole-source suppliers. For the taxpayer, the exchange produces traceable cost and pricing evidence that allows the Department to negotiate from actual data rather than relying on historical price comparisons that can mask excess pricing. Why centralized platforms and direct ERP connections fail at scale The two most common counterproposals, direct ERP connectivity and a centralized proprietary platform, both fail at scale. Direct connections across 200,000 suppliers create an integration bottleneck and enlarge the attack surface. A central proprietary platform concentrates CUI into one high-value target and creates vendor lock-in. It also requires automated access to contractor systems, which no...