Foreign military sales essential to U.S. defense.

• Author: Hartzler, Vicky
• Position: Congressional Perspective

It is widely accepted that the foreign military sales process has a critical impact on U.S. national security. Our nation reaps the benefits from interoperability with foreign partners and the multilateral trust it builds.

In addition to this vital role that foreign military sales, or FMS, play in our collective defense, there is another, equally compelling reason why it is critically important. Foreign military sales save the Department of Defense, and therefore the U.S. taxpayer, staggering amounts of money.

In joint operations with our allies when we are all employing the same equipment, there's another aspect of interoperability that's important to note: Every fighter aircraft, surface combatant, vehicle and weapon system that our partners have purchased from the United States to stand with us in combat is one that the United States didn't have to buy itself.

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As I mentioned in a National Defense op-ed last month, the United States and the United Kingdom both operate P-8 maritime surveillance aircraft to protect the North Sea against Russian encroachment. Instead of the United States embarking on this mission by itself, the United Kingdom shares this responsibility with us. They share the cost burden with us to accomplish the mission.

Every opportunity for cost savings must be realized given today's tightened fiscal realities. While the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 provided the Defense Department temporary relief from sequestration, we're not out of the woods.

Reckless, arbitrary cuts loom in the future, and our men and women in uniform still face a readiness crisis today. As we continue to ask our military to do more with less, it's important that we act on a solution that can stretch defense dollars further.

The most recent omnibus reprogramming action the Pentagon sent to Capitol Hill clearly demonstrated savings due to foreign military sales. Multiple programs across the Army, Navy and Air Force saw lower production costs, efficiencies gained and reduced costs for future modernization as a result of more foreign sales than expected. It is simple economics--economies of scale are achieved when orders increase and the individual unit price decreases.

The Pentagon doesn't just realize these savings as an after-thought. In fact, they plan for them in the annual budget cycle as well. Each of the services makes assumptions about production lines being open in their business case analyses and budget predictions.

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