The Department of Defense, NASA and the General Services Administration have issued a final rule to create a new part of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, or FAR, that will house requirements related to information security and supply chain security.

In a Federal Register notice published Monday, the agencies said the final rule will take effect on May 1 to create the FAR part 40 that will serve as a single, consolidated location for addressing cybersecurity supply chain risk management requirements that apply to new acquisitions.

The agencies noted that the new rule does not implement policies and procedures for managing information security and supply chain security and instead “simply establishes the new FAR part.”

A separate rulemaking will be issued to relocate existing policies or procedures, according to the notice.

With the new FAR part, contracting officers will have a designated location for reviewing and implementing applicable requirements to manage information security and supply chain security when acquiring products and services.

Army Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly, director of the Defense Logistics Agency, said DLA has a four-pronged framework to transform the way it provides support and materials to address the U.S. Army’s readiness and sustainment needs.

Speaking at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium and Exhibition, Simerly said DLA’s transformation framework focuses on enhancing its workforce, precision, posture and partnerships.

According to Simerly, DLA is working to ensure that its people understand current and future challenges from the perspective of the warfighters on the battlefield and that its industry partners have an accurate and timely understanding of military requirements.

“We can’t afford to have vague, ambiguous requirements if we want to have specific performance on their part that’s tied to a specific time, a specific place and in a specific way,” Simerly said.

Simerly also recommended that industry representatives recognize the challenges posed by contested logistics and focus on data-sharing capabilities to better provide warfighter support.