Pentagon Targets Foreign Military Sales Reforms.

• Author: Lee, Nooree

The Defense Department announced June 13 that the secretary of defense approved recommendations for strengthening the foreign military sales program and instructed FMS-implementing agencies to move forward with these recommendations.

It remains to be seen how the department's agencies will implement the recommendations, and there is a possibility that legislative action will impact FMS reform and supplement or supersede these recommendations.

Last year, the Pentagon formed a tiger team to evaluate the FMS program and consider potential improvements. As part of that process, the team solicited industry input in the form of a November report compiled by the Aerospace Industries Association, the Professional Services Council and the National Defense Industrial Association and a follow-on set of seven industry recommendations released in February of this year.

In June, the tiger team released--and the department adopted--its own set of six recommendations that largely mirror the broad goals--if not the specific action items--set forth in the industry recommendations.

First, the tiger team recommended improving the Pentagon's understanding of ally and partner requirements. A key action item identified was a creation of a defense security cooperation service "on par with the Defense Attache Service."

A defense attache office is led by a U.S. military officer and serves as the primary military advisor to a U.S. ambassador. Defense attache offices are located within U.S. embassies and consulates, providing an in-country presence to liaise with allied defense ministries regarding their security needs. Defense attaches historically have been the security cooperation officer for the given country. It is unclear precisely how the tiger team envisions the new service would interact with the existing defense attaches.

The second tiger team recommendation is to enable efficient reviews and reduce barriers to export control approvals for key technologies. The tiger team did not identify any specific actions here, but the industry report flagged the need for a more centralized approach to export management, including considering aligning the end use monitoring programs across various departments. Next, the tiger team recommended providing allies with priority capabilities, including by developing methodologies for facilitating non-pro grams of record. The industry report observed that FMS currently strongly favors programs of record, which are programs for...