Foreign Military Sales
Sentfore Insights
This note explains when a proposed arms sale must be notified to Congress under section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act, how long the review lasts, and what a published notification does and does not mean.
The statutory thresholds and review periods, the raised thresholds for certain partners, the informal review that precedes formal notification, the joint resolution of disapproval, and how to read a published notification.
Any individual notified sale, and any view on whether a proposed transfer should proceed.
Section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act, at 22 U.S.C. 2776(b)(1), requires the President to submit a numbered certification to named committees of Congress before a letter of offer is issued, once a proposed sale reaches a threshold. The statute sets three, by category.
The thresholds are "$50,000,000 or more" for defense articles or services, "$200,000,000 or more" for design and construction services, and "$14,000,000 or more" for major defense equipment. Major defense equipment is itself a defined term, meaning an item on the United States Munitions List with nonrecurring research and development cost above $50,000,000 or total production cost above $200,000,000 (22 U.S.C. 2794(6)).
The certification goes to the Speaker of the House, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
A separate provision raises the thresholds for a defined group. 22 U.S.C. 2776(b)(6) applies to a letter of offer to a member country of NATO, or to Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Israel or New Zealand. For those purchasers, notification is required only at "$25,000,000 or more" for major defense equipment, "$100,000,000 or more" for defense articles or services, and "$300,000,000 or more" for design and construction services.
Two points are easy to get wrong. The raised thresholds apply to a member country of NATO, while the shorter review period in paragraph (1) refers to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization itself as well as its member countries. And the two lists are related but not identical, so the threshold and the clock are worth checking separately.
Before the statutory clock starts, there is a stage that does not appear in the statute at all. The manual describes it as Tiered Review: the State Department "submits the package to Congress for the informal Tiered Review period", during which "Congress reviews CNs prior to formal submittal and to requests further information, if needed" (SAMM C5.7.6.3).
The manual publishes notional timelines. They run 20 days for NATO countries plus Australia, Israel, Japan, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand, and 30 days for other countries and organisations. Sensitive cases get 40 days, among them those involving Missile Technology Control Regime Category I articles. It then states the qualification that matters: "these timelines are not binding and Tiered Review is complete only when State has completed its consultations with Congress", normally four clearances from the chairs and ranking members of the two committees.
Anyone modelling how long a large sale takes and counting only the statutory period will be short by this stage, and this stage has no deadline.
Once the certification is formally submitted, the statute gives Congress a fixed window. A letter of offer may not be issued if Congress "enacts a joint resolution prohibiting the proposed sale" within the review period. That period runs "within fifteen calendar days after receiving such certification" for a proposed sale to NATO, a NATO member country, Japan, Australia, the Republic of Korea, Israel or New Zealand. For any other country or organisation it runs "within thirty calendar days" (22 U.S.C. 2776(b)(1)).
There is an exception written into the same sentence. The review requirement does not bite where the President states in the certification "that an emergency exists which requires such sale in the national security interests of the United States". The statute then requires a detailed justification, including "a description of the emergency circumstances which necessitate the immediate issuance of the letter of offer".
The manual sets out what follows. If no joint resolution of disapproval is adopted, the agreement "may be offered to the purchaser upon expiration of the statutory 15- or 30-day review period" (SAMM C5.7.6.4.1). If one is adopted, the agreement cannot be offered while the process runs, and "if the President does not veto the joint resolution of disapproval, or if Congress overrides the veto, the LOA may not be offered" (SAMM C5.7.6.4.3).
A notification is a ceiling, not a contract. The manual instructs that proposed sales "should be developed for the maximum reasonable program scope and value to prevent the need to re-notify if the final offer should exceed the initial notification" (SAMM C5.7.5.1.3). The published figure is deliberately built high.
DSCA says the same on the notifications themselves. Its releases carry a standard closing paragraph: "The description and dollar value are for the highest estimated quantity and dollar value based on initial requirements. Actual dollar value will be lower depending on final requirements, budget authority, and signed sales agreement(s), if and when concluded" (DSCA notification, 3 February 2026).
The phrase "if and when concluded" is doing real work. Notification permits a sale to proceed. It does not commit the partner to buy, and it does not fix a price.
A notification also has a shelf life. The manual states that a notification which has not resulted in an accepted agreement "remains a valid notification against which LOAs may be accepted and implemented for a period of time not to exceed five years" (SAMM C5.7.6.7). A sale can therefore appear in the press years before anything is signed, and still be entirely regular.
Unclassified notifications reach the public in more than one place. The manual states that the full text is published in the Congressional Record. Unclassified texts are also posted in the Federal Register after notification, and the State Department publishes a web post for each unclassified notification (SAMM C5.7.6.5 and C5.7.6.6).
The DSCA listing has changed. Its major arms sales page now states that "in accordance with Executive Order 14383 'ESTABLISHING AN AMERICA FIRST ARMS TRANSFER STRATEGY' signed on February 6, 2026, all future Foreign Military Sales web posts for cases notified to Congress will be published on the U.S. Department of State's website" (DSCA, Major Arms Sales). The State Department fact sheet for fiscal year 2025 records the same split, noting that sales before 26 February 2026 remain listed on the DSCA site.
| Section 36(b) | The congressional review provision of the Arms Export Control Act, codified at 22 U.S.C. 2776(b). |
|---|---|
| MDE | Major defense equipment, defined at 22 U.S.C. 2794(6). |
| CN | Congressional notification, the manual's term for the certifications under section 36(b). SAMM C5.7.1. |
| Tiered Review | The informal pre-notification consultation with Congress. SAMM C5.7.6.3. |
| Joint resolution of disapproval | The instrument by which Congress can prohibit a proposed sale within the review period. |
This note describes public United States government programmes for general information. It is not legal, regulatory or procurement advice, and it does not address the facts of any particular case.
A notified sale that is later concluded still has to be delivered, installed, protected and sustained where the partner operates. Sentfore's current services cover protective security, armored transport and secure movement, secure facilities and life support, technology and sensor integration, and contingency and expeditionary operations. Sentfore's principals have worked on overseas defense and security programmes in the regions where these requirements arise. Enquiries can be sent through the contact page.
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