Commercial and Government Entity

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The Commercial And Government Entity Code, or CAGE Code, is a unique identifier assigned to suppliers (to various government or defense agencies) as well as to government agencies themselves and also various organizations. CAGE codes provide a standardized method of identifying a given facility at a specific location.

CAGE Codes are used internationally as part of the NATO Codification System (NCS), where they are sometimes called NCAGE Codes. CAGE codes are referenced in various databases of the NCS, in particular they are used along with the supplier's part number to form a reference which is held on the NATO Stock Number (NSN) record. This reference enables users of the NCS to determine who supplies any given part.

The information associated with the “Entities” themselves: their name, address, phone numbers and such, is catalogued in the H4 and H8 Handbooks. The National Codification Bureau of each NATO or NATO-sponsored Nation is responsible for the maintenance of the CAGE code information for entities in these respective countries. There are in the order of 1.5 Million entities in this catalog.

Within the US, any organization wishing to be a supplier to the DoD is issued a CAGE Code by the US NCB: Defense Logistics Information Service (DLIS). An entity issued a CAGE code must reapply annually to renew it.

CAGE is sometimes expanded as "Commercial Activity/Government Entity", "Contractor And Government Entity", or other, similar variations. According to the DLIS website, "Commercial And Government Entity" is proper. CAGE was previously known as Federal Supply Code for Manufacturers, or FSCM, which was also the National Supply Code for Manufacturer, or NSCM.

In the NCS metadata, the CAGE code's Data Record Number (DRN) is 9250 (or 4140 for NSCM); information listed under this DRN indentifies very specifically the semantics of CAGE, its syntax and the procedures associated with it.

[edit] Syntax

CAGE codes are all five characters in length. There is no meaning encoded in the code itself, other than the underlying NCB; it is simply a unique identifier.

United States
The first and last characters must be numerals; the remaining characters can be numerals or any letter except for I or O. Example: 81349
France
The first character is the letter F or M and the last character must be a numeral. Example: F1234
United Kingdom
The first character is either the letter U or K and the last character must be a numeral. Example: K1F21
Spain
The last character is the letter B and the first character must be a numeral. Example: 001ZB

See the Code Chart provided by the NATO AC/135 committee (the group of National Directors on Codification) for the syntax of CAGE codes in various countries.

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