Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a 2025 Wash100 Award winner, has issued new guidance aimed at unifying its arms transfer and security cooperation enterprise to improve efficiency, strengthen burden-sharing with allies and partners, and enhance the U.S. defense industrial base. The memorandum, dated Nov. 7, is part of a trio of documents from the Department of Defense that call for changes in the defense acquisition.
The memo on arms transfer outlines structural, regulatory and organizational changes designed to accelerate the delivery of defense capabilities and increase transparency across the foreign military sales, also known as FMS, and direct commercial sales, or DCS, systems.
What Reforms Are Planned for the Arms Transfer System?
According to the memo, the department is implementing updates consistent with Executive Order 14268, which directs reforms to improve the speed and accountability of foreign defense sales. These steps include narrowing the scope of items requiring government-to-government transfer, increasing investments in exportability features, modernizing IT systems used for FMS and DCS, and improving end-to-end performance metrics. The Pentagon said the changes will help address bottlenecks, align acquisition timelines with operational needs and expand opportunities for industry participation.
The guidance also moves the Defense Security Cooperation Agency and the Defense Technology Administration from the under secretary of defense for policy, or USD(P), to the under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, also known as USD(A&S). The move, the memo explained, creates a clear line of authority and optimizes arms transfer. The USD(A&S) will be in charge of ensuring that sales meet domestic and foreign partner demands.
USD(P) and USD(A&S) are required to draft and submit an implementation plan for the transfer of responsibility within 60 days.
“This is just the beginning of transforming our approach to defense sales,” Hegseth said at a recent event as reported by DefenseScoop. “There’s much more to come in the months ahead — because this is about more than selling weapons. It’s about building partnerships, strengthening our industrial base and ensuring that American-made military equipment remains the gold standard for defense around the world.”
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