The Department of Defense’s new DoDI 5200.50 (effective June 27, 2025) mandates that all microelectronics used in defense systems be trusted, risk‑assessed, and evidence‑backed throughout their lifecycle – a direct response to the security challenges of today’s globalized supply chains. For DoD program offices and prime contractors, this shifts microelectronics procurement toward risk‑based, evidence‑driven decision‑making, with RFPs and program reviews demanding documented proof of compliance. ObjectSecurity’s SCRAMS (Supply Chain Risk Analysis & Management Solution) automates this process, turning bulk procurement data into actionable intelligence and audit‑ready evidence at scale.
What the New Instruction Mandates
The Department of Defense’s new DoDI 5200.50, which took effect on June 27, 2025, marks a significant shift in how the Pentagon approaches assured access to trusted microelectronics. For program offices and prime contractors, this is more than a policy update – it signals the start of an era in which every microelectronics sourcing decision must be backed by risk‑based reasoning and defensible evidence.
Under 5200.50, the Department is making it clear that microelectronics procurement must follow a structured, risk‑driven process. Whenever possible, acquisition teams are expected to use DMEA‑accredited trusted suppliers to ensure the integrity of critical components. When that isn’t feasible, the policy calls for evidence‑based assurance or an approved risk‑based method to justify sourcing decisions. This means program managers and their industry partners will need to demonstrate that they have actively considered threats such as counterfeit components, supply chain vulnerabilities, and obsolescence risks – known in the acquisition world as DMSMS – throughout the system life cycle.
DoDI 5200.50 requirements include:
- Employ risk‑based assessments to inform all microelectronics decisions.
- Use DMEA‑accredited trusted suppliers whenever possible; otherwise, apply evidence‑based assurance or approved risk‑based methods.
- Safeguard sensitive information, including CUI and classified material, throughout the ME life cycle.
- Actively manage DMSMS risks and obsolescence, supporting sustainment and technology refresh planning.
- Maintain records supporting your risk assessments, sourcing decisions, and evidence files per DoDI 5015.02.
- Incorporate verification measures, such as testing, validation, counterfeit prevention, and supplier status checks, into program documentation.
The instruction also reinforces the need to safeguard sensitive information, including controlled unclassified and classified data, and to retain clear records that document how every microelectronics decision was reached. In practical terms, this translates to an increasing expectation that primes and subcontractors will be ready to produce auditable, well‑organized evidence packages during program reviews, milestone decisions, and in response to RFP requirements.
In practical terms, this means program managers and primes must provide auditable justification for every microelectronics sourcing decision, showing that risks have been considered and mitigated.
The Challenge
Yet meeting these requirements can be daunting. Complying with 5200.50 at scale is data‑intensive. A single defense program might involve tens of thousands of parts sourced from multiple suppliers, with procurement data scattered across ERP systems, spreadsheets, and subcontractor reports. Manually reviewing this volume of information and producing the documentation needed for 5200.50 compliance is time‑consuming and error‑prone.
Program teams and capture managers need a way to scale the evidence‑generation process without spending months buried in spreadsheets.
DoDI 5200.50 Challenges Include:
- Thousands of parts, vendors, and shipments across multiple programs.
- Bulk procurement records spread across ERP systems, spreadsheets, and subcontractor reports.
- Evidence requirements for program milestone reviews and audits.
- Manually tracking, analyzing, and packaging this data for evidence‑based assurance is time‑consuming and prone to gaps.
How SCRAMS Supports 5200.50 Compliance
This is where SCRAMS (Supply Chain Risk Analysis & Management Solution) offers a practical advantage. Rather than promising perfect, end‑to‑end traceability across every sub‑tier of the supply chain, SCRAMS focuses on speed, simplicity, and evidence packaging. It ingests bulk procurement data – everything from ERP exports to board‑level BOMs – and quickly surfaces risk indicators such as pricing anomalies, suspicious vendor activity, CAGE code irregularities, geographic exposures, and even potential counterfeit flags. Teams can then drill down into the data to focus on the highest‑risk parts and suppliers, while also generating exportable reports that align directly with 5200.50’s evidence‑based assurance expectations.
By approaching microelectronics assurance in this way, SCRAMS turns a compliance burden into a manageable workflow. It allows primes and program offices to demonstrate that they have performed risk‑based assessments across their supply chain, that trusted suppliers were used whenever possible, and that all evidence is audit‑ready and properly retained.
The result is a defensible story for contracting officers and program managers – one that satisfies the Department’s new policy without requiring teams to reinvent their entire procurement process.
Key SCRAMS capabilities for contractors and PMs:
- Practical, scalable approach to meet the instruction’s expectations without over‑promising unrealistic sub‑tier omniscience.
- Bulk procurement data ingestion: Upload ERP exports, spreadsheets, and BOMs in one step.
- Automated risk indicators: Quickly identify pricing anomalies, vendor/CAGE issues, geo‑event exposures, and counterfeit flags.
- Drill‑down and filtering: Focus on high‑risk parts and suppliers, saving analyst time for critical checks/
- Evidence packaging: Export reports aligned with evidence‑based assurance expectations – ready for program reviews, RFP responses, and audits.
- Microelectronics support: Identify component‑level anomalies in board/BOM data to inform testing and sourcing decisions.
- Doesn’t promise perfect sub‑tier visibility. Instead, it gives you rapid, actionable insight from your real procurement data, enriched with open‑source and commercial risk signals-producing defensible, audit‑ready evidence.
In short, DoDI 5200.50 makes evidence the currency of microelectronics assurance. With SCRAMS, that evidence can be generated quickly, consistently, and at scale, giving program teams a clear path to compliance and freeing analysts to focus on the highest‑value assurance activities. For organizations facing upcoming RFPs or program reviews, running a pilot with SCRAMS can turn weeks of manual effort into a ready‑to‑deliver evidence package in just days.
The Payoff for Primes and PMs
DoDI 5200.50 turns microelectronics assurance into an evidence exercise. SCRAMS lets you scale that evidence generation – without months of manual spreadsheet work.
By integrating SCRAMS into your supply chain risk workflow, you can:
- Document a risk‑based assessment across your entire procurement population.
- Show clear justification for trusted supplier usage or risk‑based assurance.
- Generate audit‑ready evidence artifacts that meet DoDI 5200.50 retention and compliance expectations.
Call to Action
If you’re preparing for an RFP or program review under 5200.50, ObjectSecurity SCRAMS can ingest a sample of your procurement data and generate a pilot evidence package in days, helping you stay ahead of new compliance requirements.
