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US State Department cleared $83.5 billion in Foreign Military Sales in fiscal 2020
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department cleared $83.5 billion in Foreign Military Sales (FMS) cases in fiscal year 2020, the highest total of FMS notifications since the start of the Trump administration.
The dollar total — spread over 68 FMS cases notified to Congress — represent an increase of roughly $15 billion over FY19 figures. However, that dollar figure comes with a number of caveats that will lower the overall dollar figure of actual sales when negotiations are complete.
FMS notification figures represent potential arms sales that the State Department cleared internally, then passed on to Congress through the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The notifications do not represent final sales; if Congress does not reject the potential sale, it then goes into negotiations, during which dollar figures and quantities of equipment can change.
However, while not solid dollars, notifications are a notable way of tracking interest in procuring American arms from foreign partners, and are seen as a leading indicator of final sales to come.
Geographically, the Pacific region led the way with 25 requests, totaling $44.1 billion in potential sales. Following that was the Europe, with 20 requests and $21.1 billion; the Middle East with 14 cases and $11.5 billion and Africa with five cases and $5.1 billion. Central and South America (three cases) and Canada (one case) each totaled less than a billion.
July was the busiest month, with 15 announcements worth $32.5 billion, followed by September with nine announcements worth $17.4 billion. Japan was the largest single customer, with five cases worth an estimated $27.9 billion. The second highest dollar total for one nation was Switzerland — which leads to the biggest caveat from these numbers.
FMS deals sometimes never come to fruition, and that is particularly true with two cases included in the FY20 figures: Switzerland and the Philippines. In both cases, State moved to preapprove those nations to buy high-end American technology, even though the governments had not selected the winner of their internal competition.
That meant that while the Philippines has not decided on its next military helicopter, State in April announced it had been cleared potential sales for both AH-1Z helicopters at $450 million and AH-64E Apaches at $1.5 billion. The case was even starker in Switzerland, where Bern was cleared this week to purchase both the F/A-18 Super Hornet for $7.45 billion and the F-35A for $6.58 billion.
In both those situations, the country has yet to decide if it will purchase any American system, and will not be purchasing both; a decision to buy from elsewhere in both cases would drop the FMS total by almost $16 billion.
www.defensenews.com
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department cleared $83.5 billion in Foreign Military Sales (FMS) cases in fiscal year 2020, the highest total of FMS notifications since the start of the Trump administration.
The dollar total — spread over 68 FMS cases notified to Congress — represent an increase of roughly $15 billion over FY19 figures. However, that dollar figure comes with a number of caveats that will lower the overall dollar figure of actual sales when negotiations are complete.
FMS notification figures represent potential arms sales that the State Department cleared internally, then passed on to Congress through the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The notifications do not represent final sales; if Congress does not reject the potential sale, it then goes into negotiations, during which dollar figures and quantities of equipment can change.
However, while not solid dollars, notifications are a notable way of tracking interest in procuring American arms from foreign partners, and are seen as a leading indicator of final sales to come.
Geographically, the Pacific region led the way with 25 requests, totaling $44.1 billion in potential sales. Following that was the Europe, with 20 requests and $21.1 billion; the Middle East with 14 cases and $11.5 billion and Africa with five cases and $5.1 billion. Central and South America (three cases) and Canada (one case) each totaled less than a billion.
July was the busiest month, with 15 announcements worth $32.5 billion, followed by September with nine announcements worth $17.4 billion. Japan was the largest single customer, with five cases worth an estimated $27.9 billion. The second highest dollar total for one nation was Switzerland — which leads to the biggest caveat from these numbers.
FMS deals sometimes never come to fruition, and that is particularly true with two cases included in the FY20 figures: Switzerland and the Philippines. In both cases, State moved to preapprove those nations to buy high-end American technology, even though the governments had not selected the winner of their internal competition.
That meant that while the Philippines has not decided on its next military helicopter, State in April announced it had been cleared potential sales for both AH-1Z helicopters at $450 million and AH-64E Apaches at $1.5 billion. The case was even starker in Switzerland, where Bern was cleared this week to purchase both the F/A-18 Super Hornet for $7.45 billion and the F-35A for $6.58 billion.
In both those situations, the country has yet to decide if it will purchase any American system, and will not be purchasing both; a decision to buy from elsewhere in both cases would drop the FMS total by almost $16 billion.
US State Department cleared $83.5 billion in foreign military sales in FY20
The dollar total is the highest of the Trump administration's tenure, but it comes with some caveats.
www.defensenews.com
