Foreign military sales more vital than ever.

• Author: McKinley, Craig R.
• Position: President's Perspective

Recently, the House Armed Services subcommittee on oversight and investigations asked the National Defense Industrial Association to offer its perspective on foreign military sales (FMS)

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Senior Fellow in Residence Tom Davis, along with Remy Nathan, vice president of international affairs at the Aerospace Industries Association, appeared before the subcommittee to provide some observations.

As Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., chair of the subcommittee said in her opening statement, "It is vital to provide the opportunity for our allies to acquire military equipment and services to bolster their security needs. It's also important to note the benefits the United States realizes from our allies' collective safety, especially as threats to democracy and freedom expand."

As many have observed, the process by which FMS and commercial direct sales of military equipment to international customers are reviewed and approved by the U.S. government has grown complex and cumbersome. In the government itself, there are numerous stakeholders involved in the process including Congress and the Departments of Defense, State and Commerce. Defense and State essentially review items from the perspective of defense capability and strategy, and how a sale would further U.S. interests. Commerce reviews sales from the perspective of the transfer of technology that might have a dual-use capability, essentially a commercial item that could have military applications.

As Hartzler noted, "Some believe the Department of Defense's FMS process is too cumbersome and bureaucratic. Others offer that the process is designed to be deliberately slow and methodical in order to achieve the correct outcome in determining whether or not the U.S. supplies military capabilities that appropriately further U.S. national security interests."

For a company seeking to make an international sale, navigating through this thick undergrowth of rules, regulations and players can potentially take two to three years as the sale is reviewed from numerous perspectives. Not surprisingly, the various review organizations can have very different views on the appropriateness and merits of a potential sale, and although one agency may be signaling to the provider that the sale will be approved, another agency may simultaneously be preparing the case against it, which is sometimes unknown to either the other agency or the company.

Various efforts have been undertaken to make U.S...