Foreign Military Sales

The U.S. Department of Defense's Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program facilitates sales of U.S. arms, defense equipment, defense services, and military training to foreign governments. The purchaser does not deal directly with the defense contractor; instead, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency serves as an intermediary, usually handling procurement, logistics and delivery and often providing product support, training, and infrastructure construction (such as hangars, runways, utilities, etc.). The Defense Contract Management Agency often accepts FMS equipment on behalf of the US government.

FMS is based on countries being authorized to participate, cases as the mechanism to procure services, and a deposit in a US Trust Fund or appropriate credit and approval to fund services.

Some U.S. Air Force FMS programs are assigned two-word codenames beginning with the word PEACE, indicating oversight by USAF Headquarters. The second word in these codenames is often chosen to reflect some facet of the customer, such as MARBLE for Israel or ONYX for Turkey. Codenames appear in all capital letters.

No partner nation has yet succeeded in applying strict schedule clauses to a FMS program.

See also

• Foreign Military Sales Act of 1968
• List of F-16 FMS programs
• United States Foreign Military Financing

References

• Department of Defense Financial Management Regulation (DoDFMR) 7000.14-R, Volume 15

External links

• DSCA Foreign Military Sales program page
• AFSAC - The Air Force Security Assistance Center
• Frida Berrigan and William D. Hartung, with Leslie Heffel. "Human Rights Records of Top 25 U.S. Arms Recipients in the Developing World". World Policy Institute, June 2005.
• Frida Berrigan and William D. Hartung, with Leslie Heffel. "U.S. Weapons Sales to 25 Active Conflict Nations". World Policy Institute, June 2005.