An Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) is a government-to-government military logistics tool. It lets U.S. forces and eligible foreign militaries or international organizations exchange logistics support, supplies, and services (LSSS) and settle later by cash, replacement-in-kind, or equal-value exchange. As a deploying CCO you will not execute on an ACSA. You need awareness, because coalition-support requests land at the contracting desk first, and you have to recognize which lane the request actually belongs in before someone moves too fast.
The doctrinal answer is that ACSAs are a Combatant Command, logistics, and finance program. Execution sits with designated ACSA Program Managers, finance managers, and authorized ordering officials. The reason a CCO still needs awareness is that coalition-support problems do not arrive at the ACSA desk first. They arrive at yours.
A coalition battalion needs dining services. A partner aircraft needs fuel and ground servicing at an austere site. A foreign force needs billeting for 30 days. If the requirement is logistics support, supplies, or services with a foreign military or international organization, and there may be a current ACSA path, your move is to route to the ACSA Program Manager (PM), not modify a base contract.
DoD components may not use ACSA authorities to acquire goods or services reasonably available from U.S. commercial sources. If the answer is a vendor on a contract, the lane is FAR / Operational Contract Support (OCS), and the warrant in your pocket is the right tool. The Joint Staff explicitly says recurring ACSA requirements should be reviewed for movement into contract consideration.
Someone promises support to a coalition partner without a current agreement, without an authorized ordering official, or without a fund cite. That is an unauthorized commitment in the making, and it has to be ratified after the fact. The Defense Financial Management Regulation now has a dedicated ACSA ratification framework; FAR 1.602-3 is still the reference. Your job at the moment of recognition is to slow the train down.
LSSS is broad but it has hard edges. The exclusions matter because a partner request for a major weapon system or significant military equipment is not an ACSA problem; it is a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) or Direct Commercial Sale (DCS) problem with foreign-disclosure and export-control review.
| In scope (LSSS) | Out of scope |
|---|---|
| Food, billeting, transportation | Weapon systems |
| Petroleum, oils, and lubricants (POL); fuel | Major end items of equipment |
| Clothing, communications services | Initial quantities of replacement and spare parts for major end items |
| Medical services, ammunition | U.S. Munitions List Significant Military Equipment (SME), absent specific authority |
| Base operations support, storage, facilities use | Guided missiles, naval mines and torpedoes |
| Training services, spare parts, repair, maintenance, calibration, port services | Nuclear ammunition, related items, bomb guidance kits, certain chemical munitions |
| Temporary use of general-purpose nonlethal equipment | Items DoD may not lawfully acquire; nuclear materials under the Atomic Energy Act |
| Transfers to countries with no current ACSA | |
| Air Force service guidance: technical orders, regulations, publications |
A CCO who can name the lane fast saves the staff hours. The most common confusion is treating a coalition LSSS request as a contract problem, or treating a U.S.-internal support need as an ACSA problem. The relationship being supported tells you the lane.
| Tool | Who it is with | Best use |
|---|---|---|
| FAR contract / Chapter 137 | Commercial source | Buying supplies, services, or construction from a vendor. Your warrant lane. |
| ACSA / Acquisition-Only Agreement (AOA) | Eligible foreign military or international organization | Reciprocal or acquisition-only logistics support with foreign partners. Government-to-government. |
| Interagency support / Military Interdepartmental Purchase Request (MIPR) | U.S. military service or U.S. agency | Internal U.S. transfers. Air Force ACSA guidance expressly does not cover other U.S. services or agencies. |
| Host Nation Support (HNS) | Host nation under separate HNS mechanisms | Nation support to deployed force posture. Distinct lane; Air Force planning treats HNS and ACSA as separate options. |
| FMS / grants / loans / cash sale / lease | Foreign partner under security assistance | Defense articles, military training, related services. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) administers; separate from ACSA. |
| Gifts / informal unit-to-unit support | Anyone | Not a real category. Without an authorized order, signatures, records, and reimbursement, it is not a compliant ACSA action. |
The execution chain runs through the Combatant Command (CCMD), the service component, and the finance lane. The CCO is a connector to that chain, not a node inside it. Knowing the right phone number is the deliverable.
The Secretary of Defense enters cross-servicing agreements with eligible countries and organizations. International-agreements policy delegates through the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition and Sustainment), or USD(A&S). Joint Staff J-4 is the implementing proponent and AGATRS proponent. If there is no agreement path, the answer is escalate, not "contract faster."
The CCMD ACSA Program Manager is typically the lead negotiator and execution coordinator at theater level. Service-component commanders appoint logistics and finance ACSA PMs in writing, and may delegate transaction authority to installation ACSA managers. Your first phone call as the local CCO is usually the theater or component ACSA PM.
FM certifies funds, records commitments and obligations, supports billing and collection, enters clearing document numbers into AGATRS, and verifies disbursement or collection before order closeout. Without FM, an ACSA action is not execution-ready. Specialty lanes for fuel (Defense Logistics Agency Energy) and strategic transport (U.S. Transportation Command, or USTRANSCOM) may also apply.
Three settlement methods. None is informal. Each has its own valuation, timing, and conversion rules. A CCO does not have to run any of them, but should be able to recognize what the staff is talking about when these terms come up.
The recipient pays by cash, check, or electronic funds transfer in the supplying nation's currency. Generally due 30 days from invoice unless the agreement specifies otherwise. The closed order is reflected in the financial system and AGATRS with the disbursement or collection voucher data.
The receiving party repays with logistics support, supplies, or services of an identical or substantially identical nature. The order must contain a validated value estimate up front. If the partner does not complete reimbursement within the required period, the order converts to a monetary transaction.
Reimbursement with a different item or service of equal value. Same up-front valuation rule, same conversion-to-cash rule if not settled on time. Statute requires liquidation of credits and liabilities at least every 12 months.
A short sequence to run when a coalition support request lands on your desk. If the answers stay yes, route to the ACSA PM. If any answer is no, the path is something else, or the request needs to be elevated before anyone says yes.
| # | Question | If no |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Is the support between U.S. forces and an eligible foreign military or international organization? | Not an ACSA. Think contract, interagency support, or another authority. |
| 2 | Is there a current ACSA, AOA, or implementing arrangement, and is the partner eligible? | Stop. Route to the ACSA PM or higher headquarters. |
| 3 | Is the requested support actually LSSS, and not on the excluded list? | Do not force it into ACSA. Consider FMS, DCS, or another security-assistance authority. |
| 4 | Is there an operational reason to use partner logistics rather than U.S. commercial sources? | If commercial sources can reasonably satisfy the requirement, FAR / OCS is the correct lane. |
| 5 | Are written ordering authorities, a pricing basis, and a finance path in place? | Without an authorized ordering official, an accepted valuation method, fund certification for U.S. buys, and a billing route, do not proceed. |
| 6 | Can the transaction be documented and audited in AGATRS and the financial system? | If the file path does not exist yet, do not proceed until it does. |
These are the patterns the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and DoD Inspector General have flagged in real audits. If you see one of these in motion, the CCO move is to slow it down and route to the ACSA PM, finance, and legal before anyone signs.
Someone is treating a partner as if there is an agreement when there is not. Stop and elevate.
A staff officer with rank but no written designation tries to sign or accept the order. A warrant is not enough by itself; ACSA ordering authority is a separate appointment.
The requirement is reasonably available from U.S. commercial sources, and someone is reaching for ACSA because the contracting timeline feels slow. The commercial-source rule says no.
Weapon systems, major end items, SME, prohibited munitions, technical publications, foreign-disclosure-sensitive items. These are FMS, DCS, or disclosure issues, not ACSA scope.
No fund certification, wrong color of money, or a cross-fiscal-year severable-services trap on a continuing order. ACSA is not a fiscal-law exception. Purpose, time, and amount still apply.
Undocumented fuel, meals, billeting, or transport on a "we'll sort it out later" basis. That path leads to ratification, debt disputes, and possible Anti-Deficiency Act issues. The DoD IG has audited exactly this in past Operation Inherent Resolve and AFRICOM reviews.
Five short scenarios a deploying CCO is likely to encounter. Read each, decide which lane it is, then check the answer key. The point is recognition, not execution.
SITUATION A coalition battalion on your base needs dining-facility services for 45 days. The base support contractor already runs the DFAC. The commander says "just put them on our contract." The G-8 says the coalition normally reimburses under a theater support arrangement. LANE ACSA service-support problem (if there is a current ACSA / IA path with that partner and the support is reimbursable). WHY The base contractor may still be the means by which the U.S. performs the service, but the outward legal relationship with the coalition partner is the ACSA order, not an informal contract add-on. If someone already promised service without authority, this is heading toward a ratification. CCO MOVE Do not modify the contract blindly. Route to the ACSA PM. Confirm agreement path, ordering authority, valuation, and AGATRS plan before anyone says yes.
SITUATION A partner-nation aircraft lands at an austere site and urgently requests fuel and minor ground servicing. There is no practical commercial source on the ground. The requesting nation has a current U.S. ACSA. LANE Classic ACSA use case. WHY Urgent LSSS between eligible military partners during operations. This is what ACSAs were built for. CCO MOVE Route to the ACSA PM. Validate the agreement path and the authorized order signers. Fuel may pull DLA Energy and the joint petroleum structure into the loop. The order has to land in AGATRS and the financial system.
SITUATION A partner force wants a U.S. radar subsystem and an initial spare package for one of its major end items, and asks whether "ACSA can cover it." LANE Not ACSA. WHY Major end items, weapon systems, and initial quantities of replacement and spare parts for major end items are out of scope. SME is generally precluded absent specific authority. CCO MOVE Route to the FMS / DCS lane via the Defense Security Cooperation Agency channel. Foreign-disclosure and export-control review will be required.
SITUATION Your task force wants to use a partner's weekly cargo movement service for an operation that will cross fiscal years. Final volume cannot be known up front. LANE Possibly an ACSA open-ended or continuing order, with caveats. WHY Open-ended ACSA orders are allowed if the parties can understand responsibilities, billing, and liabilities; if billing occurs at agreed intervals; and if the order contains a not-to-exceed (NTE) amount. Cross-FY severable-services issues still apply, and a "subject to availability of funds" clause may be required. CCO MOVE This is not "set it and forget it." Loop in the ACSA PM, finance, and legal. The order needs an NTE, a settlement timeline, and a fiscal-law review before signature.
SITUATION A commander tells a newly arrived CCO, "You have a warrant. Sign this coalition support order so we can move tonight." LANE Not yours to sign. WHY A warrant alone is not enough. The CCO can sign an ACSA order only if also designated in writing as an authorized ACSA official under the theater or service ACSA program. Otherwise, the CCO has no authority to obligate. CCO MOVE Decline to sign. Help by checking whether a Chapter 137 contract action is needed on the vendor side, by contacting the ACSA PM, and by helping the staff sort whether this is a commercial-source request or a foreign-partner LSSS request. If somebody else signs without authority, ratification will be required.