Every entry in the Defense records system exists because some decision needed a documented basis, and DD Form 2685 is one of those instruments: DD Form 2585, Tactic and Threat Severity Level Worksheet, February 1994., created to Tactic and Threat Severity Level Worksheet. The reason it carries a DD number rather than a service designation is structural — the Department maintains a single body of forms for matters that arise identically in every service, so that a record created in one component remains intelligible in another.
This is why the arrangement matters to you rather than only to the archivists. not stated governs the form throughout the Department, with not stated as the responsible office, so the record you create is legible outside your own component. Joint assignments, agency details and cross-service transactions all depend on that: the paperwork does not have to be reconstructed each time it crosses a boundary.
The edition in force is not stated, carried by the publisher as not stated, and edition discipline is stricter on a Department form than most people expect, precisely because supersession happens everywhere at once. There is no interval during which one service still works from the previous layout while another has moved on.
The sequence printed on the form is the sequence in which a reviewer will read it, and the two should agree. Header data frames every entry below it; the substantive fields depend on that frame; the certification stands at the end because its whole function is to vouch for what came before. Entries made out of sequence commonly contradict entries made earlier.
Check the edition date before you type anything, against not stated. Old blanks accumulate in shared drives for years, and the cost of one is not obvious until a reviewer cannot find a field. Because DD forms are revised centrally and replaced across the Department in a single action, there is no component still tolerating the old layout as a local practice.
Unclear entries are resolved from the printed instructions first and from not stated where the two texts diverge.
Download the form
What you can download: PDF. The form runs 1 pages and asks for approximately 194 entries. The plurality of formats is deliberate: Defense distribution has never been able to assume one operating environment across the whole force.
The difference between a fillable and a printable pdf is a difference in what the file contains. A fillable release carries an interactive layer: each box is a defined field with a name and a data type, and what you type is stored as data inside the document. A printable release has no such layer — it is an image of the page, and the only place your answers can go is onto paper. The distinction matters downstream, because a Department record often gets scanned and forwarded several times before it reaches its final file, and typed characters survive that chain in a way pen strokes do not.
What the form asks for
- 1. Project/Building identification.
- 2. Asset identification.
- Date.
- 4. Applicable tactics. Press space bar to mark X if a. Moving vehicle bomb.
- X if c. Exterior.
- X if d. Standoff weapons.
- X if e. Ballistics.
- X if b. stationary vehicle bomb.
- X if g. Covert entry.
- X if h. Insider compromise.
- X if i. Visual surveillance.
- X if f. Forced entry.
- X if k. Elec. emanations eavesdropping.
- X if j. Acoustic eavesdropping.
- X if m. Supplies bomb delivery.
- X if l. Mail bomb delivery.
- X if n. Airborne contamination.
- X if o. Waterborne contamination.
- 5. Applicable aggressors. X if a. Unsophisticated criminals.
- Enter VL, V, L, M, or H. a. Moving vehicle bomb: a. Unsophisticated criminals.
- b. Stationary vehicle bomb: Unsophisticated criminals.
- c. Exterior: Unsophisticated criminals.
- d. Standoff weapons: Unsophisticated criminals.
- e. Ballistics: Unsophisticated criminals.
Route the executed form as not stated or local guidance directs, and retain a duplicate first. Cross-component routing is ordinary for DD forms, which is precisely why a personal copy earns its keep: the receiving office may belong to an organization you have no standing to query about a missing document.
When DD Form 2685 cites another form, the citation is self-sufficient. The DD series is a single sequence administered at Department level, so the number resolves to exactly one document without any need to establish which component issued it — a convenience that exists only because the sequence was never allowed to fork.
Where a service form is cited in the same instruction, the two numbering systems should not be read across. DA numbering belongs to the Army and is administered by an Army proponent; DD numbering belongs to the Department and is administered by not stated or an equivalent Department office. The systems developed separately and were never harmonized, so identical digits in each identify two documents with nothing in common. The prefix, not the number, tells you which system you are in.
Understanding why editions change explains why checking them is not optional. Revision follows directive reissue, changes in what data is required, and amendments to mandatory notice text — decisions made at Department level and communicated through publication rather than notification. The file you saved does not update itself, so the edition date at download is what you rely on.
A word on what this page is. It distributes a published Department of Defense document and describes what the document contains and how it is completed. It is not the issuing authority, does not speak for one, and offers no legal advice; nothing written here determines whether a particular submission will be accepted, because that determination belongs entirely to the office receiving it. Questions of applicability, eligibility or procedure go to not stated, to your servicing personnel office, or to the office identified in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 2685?
- DD Form 2585, Tactic and Threat Severity Level Worksheet, February 1994.
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?