Aerospace and defense manufacturers manage some of the most complex compliance demands in industry. Long product lifecycles and deep supply chains make compliance work complex. Overlapping chemical regulations add even more pressure to deliver accurate substance data—often before contracts can move forward.
The Aerospace and Defense Declarable Substances List (AD-DSL) has become a central tool in meeting these expectations. Yet many organizations still struggle to translate AD-DSL requirements into consistent, reliable compliance practices. As regulatory pressure grows and customers demand greater transparency, the ability to operationalize AD-DSL has become essential for staying competitive and contract-ready.
What is the AD-DSL?
The AD-DSL is a shared industry list that helps aerospace and defense companies standardize supplier substance reporting. Maintained by the International Aerospace Environmental Group (IAEG), it helps standardize chemical data requests across global A&D supply chains.
The AD-DSL:
- Consolidates regulated and high-risk substances linked to REACH, RoHS, TSCA, PFAS, and other regulatory compliance frameworks
- Supports multiple compliance outputs through a single disclosure request
- Creates consistent expectations for suppliers, reducing confusion and rework
Recent releases—Version 8.0 (2024) and Version 9.0 (2025)—expanded the AD-DSL to more than 2,000 substances. They also clarified the criteria used to classify each entry. These updates reflect growing regulatory pressure on chemicals found in materials, coatings, electronics, and manufacturing processes across the aerospace and defense value chain.
Although the AD-DSL is not a regulation itself, it has become one of the fastest-growing expectations among OEMs and defense primes. Many now require AD-DSL–aligned declarations as part of supplier qualification, ongoing program reporting, and contract compliance.
Why the AD-DSL matters for compliance
The AD-DSL has a meaningful operational impact for compliance, procurement, and product teams. It helps organizations:
1. Meet customer and contractual requirements
Industry leaders increasingly expect standardized AD-DSL reporting. Incomplete or inaccurate declarations slow approvals and create risk in program execution.
2. Support multiple regulations through a single process
A single AD-DSL disclosure can help satisfy requirements tied to REACH, RoHS, Proposition 65, POPs, and other regulations. This reduces duplicate data requests and minimizes manual work.
3. Identify high-risk substances early in the lifecycle
The list identifies regulated or emerging chemicals in materials, adhesives, coatings, and processes. This gives teams clearer insight into risk and supports better decisions.
4. Create consistency across the supply base
Using an industry-standard list improves clarity and increases the likelihood of complete, accurate supplier data.
5. Strengthen audit readiness and responsiveness
Structured, consistent data makes it easier to answer customer questions, engineering inquiries, and regulatory audits with confidence.
Chemical regulations keep expanding, and customers want clearer visibility. This shift has made the AD-DSL a reliable tool for managing risk in aerospace and defense.
The expanding AD-DSL ecosystem
To support an evolving regulatory landscape, IAEG maintains several connected tools:
- AD-DSL (core list): The primary list of declarable substances
- AD-PFAS DSL: A PFAS-focused list addressing accelerating regulatory requirements
- AD-SRT: A standardized Excel template for supplier reporting
- IPC-1754 compatibility: Machine-readable XML formats aligned with A&D digital reporting standards
These tools help standardize reporting while raising expectations for accuracy, completeness, and supplier participation.
Common pain points for aerospace and defense suppliers
Even well-prepared teams face challenges when operationalizing AD-DSL programs.
Incomplete or inconsistent supplier data: Suppliers vary in their familiarity with AD-DSL expectations. Many provide partial or outdated disclosures that require significant clarification.
Version control challenges: OEMs adopt new AD-DSL versions at different times. Without structured tracking, mismatched declarations and rework are common.
PFAS uncertainty: Suppliers often lack visibility into where PFAS is used in their materials or processes. This makes the AD-PFAS DSL harder to complete and adds complexity to reporting.
Spreadsheet-heavy, manual workflows: Email outreach and manual data consolidation are hard to scale. These workflows often lead to data gaps, delays, and errors.
Limited visibility for leadership: Fragmented reporting makes it hard to communicate risk exposure, supplier performance, and compliance status across programs.
Building a sustainable AD-DSL program
Organizations that manage AD-DSL effectively take a structured, repeatable approach.
1. Define scope and ownership
Clarify which customers and product families drive AD-DSL requirements, and align compliance, procurement, quality, and engineering roles.
2. Standardize supplier formats
Adopt AD-SRT or IPC-1754 XML to increase consistency and streamline validation.
3. Integrate AD-DSL with product and supplier records
Connecting declarations to materials, part numbers, and suppliers creates a single dataset that supports broader compliance requirements.
4. Establish repeatable supplier engagement
Automated outreach, tracking, and follow-up help fill data gaps and reduce supplier fatigue.
5. Manage AD-DSL updates proactively
Define a change-management process to assess new versions, map impacts, and refresh only the data that requires it.
6. Use technology to scale and simplify compliance
As AD-DSL requirements grow, supply chain compliance software becomes essential. It streamlines workflows, validates data, tracks regulatory changes, and brings supplier responses into one system. This support helps teams move AD-DSL from a recurring fire drill to a predictable, strategic compliance process.
How Source Intelligence supports aerospace and defense compliance
Aerospace and defense teams work with Source Intelligence to streamline chemical, material, and sourcing requirements. Our platform helps organizations operationalize AD-DSL reporting while supporting broader compliance and risk-management needs.
With Source Intelligence, A&D companies can:
- Automate AD-DSL and AD-PFAS DSL reporting, using guided workflows and supplier engagement tools
- Collect, validate, and centralize substance data to support REACH, RoHS, TSCA, PFAS, POPs, Proposition 65, and other requirements
- Reduce supply chain risk through structured responsible sourcing programs, including Conflict Minerals and other industry-driven disclosures
- Strengthen product lifecycle decisions with integrated Bill of Materials mapping and material-level insights
- Improve resilience through robust obsolescence management that identifies at-risk components and alternative sourcing options
- Generate audit-ready reports with clean, structured data aligned to customer and regulatory standards
- Stay ahead of regulatory and list updates, with proactive triggers when new assessments or supplier follow-ups are required
Aerospace and defense teams manage chemical compliance, sourcing risks, and obsolescence pressures every day. Source Intelligence supports this work with a unified platform built for the realities of aerospace and defense supply chains.
To modernize your AD-DSL workflows and strengthen your compliance programs, explore our supply chain compliance software solutions.
