NSN Lookup

There are thousands of parts in use throughout the aerospace and defense industries. Manufacturers, suppliers, buyers, and sellers need to be familiar with all of them. The standardization of parts with NSN codes is how this is achieved. NSN stands for National Stock Number, (sometimes NATO Stock Number) and is the officially recognized number given to any parts produced throughout the federal supply system. The system was conceived in the midst of World War II with the intention of standardizing denotations of all the parts in use by the allied forces.

Each NSN is a 13-digit code constructed like this: 6240-00-357-7976. The first four numbers represent the part’s FSC and the following two digits denote the part’s country of origin. The final digits are a unique code based on what the part is. Parts are assigned NSNs by the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency through a review process called cataloging. During this, the part is examined thoroughly before being given and FSC and finally an NSN. The NSN lookup system is officially recognized by the United States government and entities such as NATO.