Insights
Foreign Military Sales and the programs around it, from a partner government’s first written request through to what happens after delivery.
Foreign Military Sales
The program through which partner governments buy defense articles and services from the United States rather than from a company. Each piece answers one question and links every statement to the statute, the manual section or the official page behind it.
The statutory authority, the division of responsibility between the State and Defense departments, how eligibility is decided, and what the published figures actually measure.
Read → 2Who holds the contract in each route, who issues the export license, what the manual says about neutrality, and which items are restricted to the government to government channel.
Read → 3The Letter of Request, the three kinds of answer a purchaser can ask for, the response times the manual actually publishes, and the difference between an amendment and a modification.
Read → 4The statutory thresholds and review periods, the informal review that precedes them, and why the dollar figure in a published notification is a ceiling rather than a price.
Read → 5Who holds the contract, which organizations run a case, how the ordinary acquisition rules apply, where a foreign customer's influence stops, and what the surcharge is.
Read →Foreign Military Financing
United States money used to pay for a partner government’s purchase. Five notes on the authority behind it, whether it is a grant or a loan, where it may be spent, what it changes about the price of a case, and how it is appropriated each year.
The authority, the delegation chain, how the money reaches a case, the purchases it is steered away from, and the annual report that sets the following year up.
Read → 2The statutory twelve year repayment period and five percent interest floor, the annual proviso that turns credit into grant, and why loan guaranties need their own legislation.
Read → 3The offshore procurement bar and its waiver, the content test that catches American companies, the flag rules on transport, and the ceiling on commercial contracts.
Read → 4The pricing exception that applies only to a wholly non-repayable case, the repricing trap on amendments, and what the funding source does to offset recovery.
Read → 5The annual appropriation and what its provisos permit, the February estimate to Congress, the separate notification for financed cases above $100 million, and how to read the figures.
Read →In preparation
Excess defense articles, offsets and end use monitoring each get their own set of pieces, written to the same standard and added here as they are published.
If there is a subject that would be useful, tell us and we will consider it for the list.