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FAR and DFARS › FAR Part 52: Solicitation Provisions and Contract Clauses › Subpart 52.2

FAR 52.246-11 Higher-Level Contract Quality Requirement.

The codified text (eCFR, as of 2026-10-02). Under the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul ↗, agencies follow class deviations with new text for many parts while the formal rules go through the Federal Register: check the solicitation and your contract's clauses, which rule.

In plain English

This clause requires the contractor to follow whatever higher-level quality standards the contracting officer lists in the clause. It also requires the contractor to pass those standards, and the duty to flow them down, into certain subcontracts. It matters because it adds quality-system obligations beyond the basic inspection requirements and pushes them down the supply chain.

Applies to: Contractors awarded contracts that include this clause, and their lower-tier subcontractors on certain work

What it requires

  • Comply with the higher-level quality standards listed in the clause
  • Include the applicable standards and the flow-down requirement in any subcontract for critical and complex items
  • Include the applicable standards and the flow-down requirement when subcontract technical requirements call for control of design, work operations, in-process control, testing, or inspection
  • Include the applicable standards and the flow-down requirement when subcontract technical requirements call for attention to organization, planning, work instructions, documentation control, or advanced metrology

Key terms: higher-level quality standard · critical and complex items · flow down · lower-tier subcontracts · advanced metrology

Written by AI from this section's text. A guide, not legal advice: the text below rules.

The text

As prescribed in 46.311, insert the following clause:

Higher-Level Contract Quality Requirement (DEC 2014)

(a) The Contractor shall comply with the higher-level quality standard(s) listed below.

[Contracting Officer insert the title, number, date, and tailoring (if any) of the higher-level quality standards.]

(b) The Contractor shall include applicable requirements of the higher-level quality standard(s) listed in paragraph (a) of this clause and the requirement to flow down such standards, as applicable, to lower-tier subcontracts, in—

(1) Any subcontract for critical and complex items (see 46.203(b) and (c)); or

(2) When the technical requirements of a subcontract require—

(i) Control of such things as design, work operations, in-process control, testing, and inspection; or

(ii) Attention to such factors as organization, planning, work instructions, documentation control, and advanced metrology.

(End of clause)

Sections it refers to

  • 46.311 Higher-level contract quality requirement.
  • 46.203 Criteria for use of contract quality requirements.

Sections that refer to it

  • 46.311 Higher-level contract quality requirement.
  • 46.317 Reporting nonconforming items.
  • 52.246-26 Reporting Nonconforming Items.

← 52.246-10 [Reserved] · 52.246-12 Inspection of Construction. →

Rule changes for FAR Part 52

Source: eCFR, 48 CFR chapters 1 and 2 (GPO GovInfo bulk data) ↗. Plain words for the terms: glossary.

FAR 52.246-11 Higher-Level Contract Quality Requirement · SpendQuery