President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order to introduce reforms to the foreign defense sales system as part of efforts to improve transparency and accountability throughout the system and revitalize the defense industrial base.
In a fact sheet published Wednesday, the White House said the order aims to reduce rules and regulations involved in the development and execution of foreign defense sales as well as promote U.S. competitiveness abroad.
Ensuring Effective Defense Cooperation
Within 60 days, the new policy directs the secretary of state to work with the defense secretary to develop a list of priority partners for conventional arms transfers and release updated guidance to chiefs of U.S. diplomatic missions regarding the list.
The secretary of defense should create a list of priority end-items for potential transfer to priority partners and ensure that the transfer would not cause any major harm to U.S. force readiness while advancing the administration’s goal of strengthening allied burden-sharing.
The order directs the secretaries of defense and state to review and update the list of defense items that can only be procured through the foreign military sales process.
Foreign Defense Sales Metrics
Over the next three months, the two secretaries should collaborate to submit a plan to the president. It should have steps on how to improve the U.S. defense sales system’s transparency to foreign partners by developing accountability metrics, securing exportability as a requirement in the acquisition’s early phases. It should consolidate technology security and foreign disclosure approvals.
The order also requires the submission to the assistant to the president for national security affairs of a plan to develop a single electronic platform to monitor all ongoing FMS efforts and Direct Commercial Sales export license requests.
