How export-control exposure is scored
Every score in this directory is arithmetic on public data. This page is the whole method — the inputs, the weights, the caps, and what the number does not mean. Scoring version 1.3, in effect since 2026-08-28.
What the score is built from
Four things, all from the SAM.gov public entity extract: the entity's primary NAICS code, its additional NAICS codes, its Product and Service Codes, and its registration posture — whether the registration is active, whether a CAGE code is assigned, and whether the entity registered for all awards or for financial assistance only.
Nothing else feeds the score. No contract history, no news, no self-reported claims, and nothing from the FOUO or Sensitive extract tiers, which this platform does not have access to. Entities that set the no-public-display flag are not held at all.
Not all industry codes carry the same weight
NAICS describes what a company does, not what it makes for whom, so a code alone can never settle jurisdiction. But codes differ sharply in how strongly they imply controlled work. We sort them into four tiers.
Tier A — the article is controlled by its nature
These industries produce things that sit on the USML because of what they are, not because of who buys them.
| NAICS | Industry | Typical category |
|---|---|---|
| 332992 | Small Arms Ammunition Manufacturing | III |
| 332993 | Ammunition (except Small Arms) Manufacturing | III |
| 332994 | Small Arms, Ordnance and Ordnance Accessories Manufacturing | I,II |
| 336414 | Guided Missile and Space Vehicle Manufacturing | IV |
| 336415 | Guided Missile and Space Vehicle Propulsion Unit Manufacturing | IV |
| 336419 | Other Guided Missile and Space Vehicle Parts Manufacturing | IV |
| 336992 | Military Armored Vehicle, Tank and Tank Component Manufacturing | VII |
Tier B — controlled when the end item is military
The largest and most consequential group. These companies build real hardware, and whether it lands on the USML, the 600 series, or neither depends entirely on the platform it goes into.
| NAICS | Industry | Typical category |
|---|---|---|
| 334511 | Search, Detection, Navigation, Guidance, Aeronautical Systems | XI,XII |
| 336411 | Aircraft Manufacturing | VIII |
| 336412 | Aircraft Engine and Engine Parts Manufacturing | VIII,XIX |
| 336413 | Other Aircraft Parts and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing | VIII |
| 336611 | Ship Building and Repairing | VI |
Tier C — capability suppliers
Machine shops, forges, composites, PCB fabricators, engineering services. Their industry code says nothing about jurisdiction, because the same shop can run commercial aluminium on Monday and a controlled airframe fitting on Tuesday. This tier matters more than its score suggests: a shop working from a prime's controlled drawing package holds technical data, often without ever thinking of itself as a defense company.
| NAICS | Industry | Typical category |
|---|---|---|
| 326199 | All Other Plastics Product Manufacturing | — |
| 332111 | Iron and Steel Forging | — |
| 332710 | Machine Shops | — |
| 332721 | Precision Turned Product Manufacturing | — |
| 334412 | Bare Printed Circuit Board Manufacturing | — |
| 541330 | Engineering Services | — |
| 541715 | R&D in Physical, Engineering and Life Sciences | — |
Tier D — commodity and commercial
Structural steel fabrication, wholesale distribution, general services. Controlled work is possible but unusual, and nothing in the registration suggests it.
| NAICS | Industry | Typical category |
|---|---|---|
| 238350 | Finish Carpentry Contractors | — |
| 332312 | Fabricated Structural Metal Manufacturing | — |
| 333314 | Optical Instrument and Lens Manufacturing (retired) (retired, folded into 333310) | — |
| 423860 | Transportation Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers | — |
PSC evidence outweighs industry codes
Product and Service Codes describe what an entity actually sells the government, which makes them stronger evidence than NAICS. A company registered under PSC 1560 is telling the government it supplies airframe structural components. That is a much more specific statement than "we are in aircraft parts manufacturing."
| PSC | Covers | Category | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10xx | Weapons | I,II | 20 |
| 1005 | Guns, through 30mm | I,II | 20 |
| 1010 | Guns, over 30mm up to 75mm | II | 20 |
| 12xx | Fire control equipment | XII | 20 |
| 13xx | Ammunition and explosives | III | 20 |
| 14xx | Guided missiles | IV | 20 |
| 15xx | Aircraft and airframe structural components | VIII | 20 |
| 16xx | Aircraft components and accessories | VIII | 20 |
| 17xx | Aircraft launching, landing, ground handling | VIII | 20 |
| 19xx | Ships, small craft, pontoons and docks | VI | 20 |
| 5855 | Night vision and emitted-radiation equipment | XII | 20 |
| 5865 | Electronic countermeasures | XI | 20 |
| 58xx | Communication, detection, coherent radiation | XI | 10 |
What holds a score down
Registration posture contributes up to 10 points: 4 for an active registration, 6 more for a CAGE code plus an all-awards registration purpose. Beyond that, several caps prevent codes from producing scores the underlying evidence cannot support.
| Condition | Effect |
|---|---|
| Registered for financial assistance only | Score capped at 20 — grantees are not manufacturers |
| No manufacturing industry code | Score capped at 30, unless product-code evidence reaches 20 points |
| Only Tier D codes | Score capped at 25 |
| No public display flag set | Not held at all |
That exemption matters. An engineering firm selling into the weapons or aircraft supply groups is doing controlled work regardless of its industry sector, and capping it for lacking a manufacturing code would silence the population this directory most needs to reach.
Reading the number
What this score is not
It is not a jurisdiction determination. Only a commodity jurisdiction review of specific articles and technical data establishes what is USML-controlled. A score is a prompt to ask the question, not an answer to it.
It is not a compliance rating. The score describes exposure — what a company's registration suggests it works on. It says nothing about whether that company handles the work correctly. A well-run program and a nonexistent one score identically.
It does not distinguish ITAR from EAR. Export Control Reform moved large parts of the military aircraft, vehicle and vessel supply chains from the USML to the 600 series of the Commerce Control List. Those articles remain controlled and still require trained personnel; the licensing agency differs. A high score means controlled, not necessarily State Department.
It is not affiliated with any agency. This directory is operated by Cleared Systems, a private training company. It is not produced, reviewed, or endorsed by GSA, DDTC, BIS, or the Department of Defense.
If a score looks wrong
Most disputed scores trace back to stale NAICS or PSC codes in the SAM registration itself — codes added years ago for a bid that never happened, and never removed. Correcting the registration corrects the score at the next monthly refresh.
If the codes are right and the score still looks wrong, claim the listing and submit a correction. A company can also request that its profile be removed from the directory entirely.
Scoring versions
Weights are versioned. Changing the model means publishing a new version and rescoring, never editing an old one — so a score computed last quarter stays explicable.
| Version | Effective | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1.3 Current | 2026-08-28 | Strong product-code evidence (PSC points >= 20) now exempts an entity from the no-manufacturing cap. Affects 381 engineering firms selling into federal supply groups 10-19 and 5855, which v1.2 flattened from an average raw score of 54 down to 30. NAICS tiers and PSC groups are unchanged from v1.2. |
| 1.2 | 2026-06-01 | Initial published model. 333314 marked retired (folded into 333310 in the 2017 NAICS revision); 333310 deliberately NOT promoted to Tier B because it now bundles commercial machinery with optics. USML Category XII exposure is sourced from PSC 5855 instead. |