DOD Studies House Report on Improving FMS

The Defense Department is “carefully reviewing” a recently released congressional report that proposes changes to speed up the Foreign Military Sales process, a DOD spokesperson said Feb. 12.

“In our efforts to break down barriers to working with allies and partners, we welcome robust dialogue with all stakeholders seeking the same goal, including our partners in Congress,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The report, unveiled Feb. 7 by a task force created by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, recommends a host of steps, including placing greater emphasis on “exportability” when designing weapon systems, and incentivizing the sale of defense technology developed by startups (see 2402080045).

In June, DOD released its own set of recommendations to speed up FMS, including one that will direct the Pentagon to “review and update relevant policies” and better “empower accountable officials to improve the efficiency of the review and release of technology” to U.S. trading partners (see 2306200012).