Washington, DC – The United States announced this week total yearly sale of military and allied equipment worth billions of dollars globally, demonstrating a strong demand for US products and services, according to the US federal agencies.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) in a statement noted the total sale of $41.93 billion for Fiscal Year 2017. The total sales include $6.04 billion of cases funded by the State Department’s Foreign Military Financing (FMF); $3.87 billion in cases funded under Defense Department (DoD) authorities; and $32.02 billion funded by partner nations through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) system.
Global FMS and FMF totaled $38.06 billion ($32.02 billion + $6.04 billion), according to State Department official. Although individual sales to two nuclear powered neighbors, India and Pakistan are not available, the State Department official provided the regional breakdown: “$22+ billion to Central Asia/Near East, $7.96+ billion to the Indo-Pacific, $7.3 billion to Europe, $641.6+ million to the Western Hemisphere, and $ 248.6+ million to Africa.”
Commenting on the data, the DSCA Chief, Lt. Gen. Charles W. Hooper, said, “This positive sales trend isn’t surprising as the United States is the global provider of choice for Security Cooperation.”
Hooper, who took over as DSCA’s Director in August added, “We deliver not only the most effective defense systems to our partners, but we also ensure a ‘Total Package’ approach that includes the provision of training, maintenance, and sustainment, to support full spectrum capability for our partners.”
In a statement, DSCA noted it was working for the past few years, through different programs with the Department of State’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy, and other stakeholders throughout the US Government, defense industry, and foreign partner communities to streamline processes to ensure even more responsiveness when delivering capabilities to US partners.
FMS
FMS is one of DSCA’s most well-known Security Cooperation programs and has served as a key tool of US diplomacy and defense for the past 70 years. FMS is a security assistance program authorized by the Arms Export Control Act under the direction of the Secretary of State. The United States uses FMS to further US foreign policy and national security objectives by sales of defense articles, defense services, and military training to foreign countries and international organizations.