Who may be trained, and what the program will not fund

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1. The program picks for the long term

Grant funded seats are not distributed on availability. They are aimed at people expected to matter later. "Personnel trained under the IMET program are selected from career personnel likely to occupy key positions in the foreign country's defense establishment" (SAMM C10.6.4.1).

That requirement is mandatory for attendance at professional level schools, command and staff level and above, unless it is specifically authorized otherwise. It is also why training of non-career personnel appears on the list of things the program does not fund.

2. Military, and which civilians

Military personnel from the partner's defense establishment are eligible in the ordinary way. Civilians are where the line sits, and it is drawn by which category of the program is in use.

Outside the expanded category the rule is restrictive: "Civilian personnel who are not members of the requesting country's defense establishment or armed forces are not eligible for traditional IMET training but may be trained under the subset of programs approved as meeting the E-IMET criteria" (SAMM C10.6.4.3.1).

Inside it the reach is much wider. Civilians and military personnel working in the defense ministry are eligible, and the category may also be used to train "foreign governmental personnel of ministries other than the MoD, legislators, and individuals who are not members of the government", where the training would contribute to its objectives (SAMM C10.6.4.3.2).

Three further groups are named. Defense civilians being trained to teach or manage in-country English language programs, defense civilians in counternarcotics work, and personnel in non-defense agencies that perform a maritime law enforcement mission.

The distinction is not cosmetic. It decides which courses a given candidate can be programmed against, and a nomination made under the wrong category fails at the point where funding is committed rather than at the schoolhouse.

3. Police forces, and how the test actually works

Section 660 of the Foreign Assistance Act does not permit the training of police or law enforcement forces, with limited exceptions. The interesting part is how the manual decides what counts.

Labels are explicitly rejected. The manual states that neither the name a foreign government gives a unit nor the ministry it operates under is sufficient to settle whether that force is a police unit. What settles it is narrower: "The determining factor is the nature of the function performed by the person or that person's unit" (SAMM C10.6.4.4). A gendarmerie inside a defense ministry is not automatically eligible, and a unit under an interior ministry is not automatically barred.

Military police training is permitted for military police and for non-police personnel, on a certification from the partner government. The embassy office must certify that the individual "does not currently conduct civilian law enforcement functions" and "will not be involved in any civilian law enforcement activities for a period of two years following return from U.S. funded IMET training" (SAMM C10.6.4.4.2).

The certification is a document with requirements of its own. It carries the student's name and rank, the course title and its catalogue number, the service, the function and the control number, and it is signed by an appropriate host nation official. A translation is attached where the original is not in English, a copy goes to the State Department, the agency and the command before the student travels, and it is "maintained on file by the SCO for a minimum of three years" (SAMM C10.6.4.4.2).

The manual states the consequence of getting this wrong in operational terms. "Failure to provide certification may result in last minute training cancellations and loss of IMET funding."

4. What the program will not fund

A table lists eighteen categories of training that cannot be provided with these funds. They are worth reading as a group, because several of them catch programs that look reasonable on paper.

• Belongs to another program. Initial or technical training supporting equipment bought through Foreign Military Sales, which is provided under the sales case instead.
• Already available. "Training in skills normally available in-country, exclusive of PME", and training already provided in a quantity sufficient to meet the requirement once reasonable attrition is allowed for.
• Wrong student. "Training of non-career military personnel", and training unlikely to produce skills the country would properly use.
• Wrong place. Courses on departmental installations outside the United States without approval, and funding a student to attend a school belonging to another country.
• Named exclusions. "Sniper training", "Flight Training", "Foreign language training", and "Musical or Band Leader courses".
• Repetition. "Repetitive training in the same courses", with guide numbers of no more than five of the same technical course, ten of the same professional course, and two master's degree programs in a fiscal year.

Distance learning is restricted rather than banned. Courses delivered outside the United States, including correspondence and satellite courses, are excluded unless they form part of a pipeline that includes a resident phase, or the agency approves them (SAMM Table C10.T5).

5. The intelligence boundary

One exclusion is drawn more carefully than the rest, and it repays a close reading. Training to support national intelligence programs is excluded outright.

What remains is limited by subject: "The scope of military intelligence training available to international students is limited to that directly related to combat or operational intelligence" (SAMM Table C10.T5). Tactical programs are not extended to cover national intelligence work, and the implementing agency reviews requests against that limit.

Restrictions of this kind apply only to this funding source. They are adjusted to follow the current language in the State Department guidance, and an exception has to be requested through the combatant command. A requirement that fails here is not necessarily a requirement that fails everywhere, which is why the authority question comes first, as set out in the authorities behind international training.

Key terms

Career personnel	The selection standard for grant funded seats, mandatory at professional school level. SAMM C10.6.4.1.
E-IMET	The expanded category, which is what makes most civilian attendance possible.
Section 660	The Foreign Assistance Act provision restricting the training of police and law enforcement forces.
T-MASL	The training articles and services list, which carries course identifiers and prerequisites.
WCN	Worksheet control number, the identifier a programmed training line and its student are held against.

Every statement above links to the document behind it. The full source list for this piece is on the sources page.

This page describes public United States government programs for general information. It is not legal, regulatory or procurement advice, and it does not address the facts of any particular case.

How Sentfore supports this

Capability built in a classroom still has to be supported in the country that uses it. Sentfore provides protective security, secure transport, facilities and life support around defense programs in difficult environments, and its principals have worked on overseas defense and security programs. Requirements can be sent through the contact page.