Partner nations keep buying American weaponry

By Ms. Adriane Elliot (USASAC)February 4, 2020

The U.S. Army Security Assistance Command's new sales tallied $12.3 billion for fiscal 2019, a strong indicator of the strength of foreign military sales between America and its allies.

"Allies and partners buy from the United States because we sell the world's most advanced defense systems," Lt. Gen. Charles Hooper, director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, noted in an Oct. 15 news release. "Through the uniquely American approach to security cooperation, we also ensure our allies and partners have all the necessary training, education, and institutional capacity to effectively employ and sustain the equipment we provide."

DSCA synchronizes security cooperation, including foreign military sales, across the DOD and State Department, Joint Staff, COCOMS, services and U.S. industry. Security Assistance Command leads the Army Materiel Command's security assistance enterprise, developing and managing foreign military sales cases and security assistance programs.

USASAC's new sales for fiscal 2019 are broken down by geographic combatant commands as follows:

--CENTCOM, with $6.5 billion in new business in fiscal 2019 and more than 2,000 active cases at a total program value of $133.8 billion. There are 20 countries in CENTCOM. The COCOM's largest case is Bahrain's $1.1 billion procurement of the Patriot.

--AFRICOM, with $225 million in new business, ramping up active cases to 783 for a total program value of $3.4 billion. There are 38 countries in the AFRICOM area of operations. Its largest case in fiscal 2019 was Nigeria's $29.4 million procurement of Aerosonde unmanned aerial systems.

--EUCOM, with $4.3 billion in new business, bringing their total up to 1,659 active cases with a total program value of $30.4 billion. There are 42 countries in the EUCOM area of operations. The largest FMS case was in support of the Spanish Ministry of defense and tallied $901 million.

--NORTHCOM, with 102 active cases and a total program value of $2 billion, conducted $170 million in new business in fiscal 2019. The region consists of two countries -- Mexico and Canada. The top FMS case was with Canada totaling $142 million.

--INDOPACOM, with $875 million in new business, 993 active cases and a total program value of $25.3 billion. There are 24 countries in PACOM, which develops and executes foreign military sales cases for partner nations in Asia and the Pacific. The top dollar case was Korea's $410 million procurement of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3.

--SOUTHCOM, with $81 million in new business, 336 active cases and a total program value of $2.6 billion. There are 26 countries in SOUTHCOM's area of operations. The largest case for the fiscal year was Argentina's $6.6 million logistics support vehicle case.

USASAC's FMS mission is a fundamental tool of U.S. foreign policy and a form of security assistance authorized by the Arms Export Control Act of 1976. Under the AECA, the U.S. may sell defense articles and services to foreign countries and organizations when the president formally finds that to do so will strengthen the security of the United States and promote world peace.

With a $200 billion FMS portfolio, USASAC is responsible for the life cycle management of nearly 6,000 cases with more than 150 countries and agencies. The command's total package approach provides its FMS partners worldwide with equipment, spare parts, maintenance, training and simulation, technical documentation and facilities.

USASAC is known as the "The Army's Face to the World" and employs hundreds of people at Redstone Arsenal; New Cumberland, Pennsylvania; Fort Belvoir, Virginia; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and many other locations throughout the globe in support of its worldwide mission.

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Related Links:

USASAC YouTube

USASAC DVIDS

USASAC Facebook

USASAC Flickr