Congress is trying to push the Obama administration to accelerate the pace of foreign military sales (FMS), House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said Jan. 8.
During a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, Royce agreed with Pentagon acquisition officials who have criticized the current speed of sales. However, he was mum on whether a change in current law would be necessary to hasten the FMS process.
“We’ve had ongoing discussions with the administration on this in order to try to expedite and reverse some of these policies that have gone on, where things have been held year after year,” he said, adding that the process has only gotten slower in recent years. “I used to say month after month, but now it’s year after year.”
Defense Department leaders, including Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and William LaPlante, the service’s top acquisition official, have said that allies and partner nations in the Middle East are eager to buy gear from the United States. Munitions and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) especially are in demand for countries that are fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen, LaPlante said after the Dubai Air Show in November.
However, the slow pace of getting FMS cases approved is leaving those countries dependent on arms sales from other nations.
“We need to do something about it. And it’s urgent,” said LaPlante, who left his post at the Pentagon at the end of November. “Guess who is over there, selling stuff? Oh, I don’t know, a place called China. Guess how many UAVs China is selling them? Do you think China has an interagency process like us to buy UAVs?”
Speeding up the FMS process is key for protecting the defense industrial base, Royce said.
“When our allies need this equipment, it makes very little sense to have them go instead to other countries,” he said. “Part of keeping our production lines open and part of offering a deterrence is having allies and friends able to count upon the United States for weapons.”
Despite complaints about the pace of sales, the value of FMS cases has been growing over the past couple of years. According to Defense Security Cooperation Agency figures, contractors garnered $46.6 billion from foreign military sales during fiscal year 2015—a figure that would have broken U.S. sales records if not for the Saudi Arabian F-15 deal in 2012, said DSCA director Vice Adm. Joseph Rixey October 2015.