Mike B -- Be advised, my limited contracting knowledge only covers the current FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulations). That contract number appears to conform to an earlier (obsolete/superceded) nomenclature. I'm digging through my documentation now to see if I have anything on earlier contract designators. Somewhere in my office I have a cheat sheet on contract numbers that I recall covered the older ones -- I'm searching.
In the meantime, at least for current contracts, it works like this: 13-character alphanumeric. position 1-6 is ID of issuing department/agency (DA would be Dept of Ag or Dept of the Army. Seeing as how the DOD cartouche is embossed as well, I'm going with Dept of the Army
); Position 7&8 are the last two digits of the fiscal year in which the contract number was assigned; position 9 is the type of instrument ("Firm, Fixed Price," "Cost plus Incentive Fee," "Cost Plus Fixed Fee," etc, etc -- there are many more types of instruments); and position 10-13 is the four digit serial number of the contract itself.
Now you know how to read a U.S. Government Contract number
I'm guessing that the earlier contracts are a little bit similar in that the first part tells us who issued the contract. It *used* to be that the Army was assigned the responsibility for procuring all ground vehicles for DOD and administered that duty through it's Tank and Automotive Command (Today known as TACOM) and part of the overall Ordnance Dept or something like that -- I'm not good with DA organization ...) Bureau of Ordnance, or something like that. Same thing/equivalent to as the Naval Air Systems Command, only for tanks, trucks, Jeeps, etc. And if you wanted more COTS 2-ton trucks (more useful for non-tactical CONUS applications like base/station logistics, maintenance, etc -- i.e., why use a Deuce and a half just to run around Pax River fixing potholes?), then you had to get your requirement ducks in a row (and some money) and then go to see the Army at TACOM and they would issue a contract for you. This is how we all ended up with those crappy M-880's back in the early '80's ...
Thank YOU very little, Army!
So not surprising that your plate and his plate have similar numbers except for the end. It would be the same kind of contract, just a separate one (his for the Army itself, yours for the Navy, presumably) issued in a different year and maybe covering a different requirement. If yours had been covered by a same requirement, then, presumably, they would have just asked the Army to issue a contract modification to add, say 250 more of that same truck type to the existing contract rather than go through the hassle of doing a completely new contract. Of course, back then, maybe the FAR (with supplement) wasn't 6 inches thick, either ...).
Hope this helps
BTW,
here's my data plate . This is on the underside of the hood of a 1988 3/4-ton Chevy passenger van procured under a General Services Administration ("GS") contract. It appears to conform to the earlier contract numbering system, as well.
