The Defense Department is expecting to see a continued uptick in the value and number of foreign military sales (FMS) cases this year, part of a trend caused by increased global demand for weapons systems, said James Hursch, director of the agency’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency. He said the U.S. had "over $50 billion" in FMS sales last year, which was a “considerable increase over the previous year,” and that trend should continue.

The State Department approved two potential military sales, one each to Japan and Latvia, worth nearly $300 million combined, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Oct. 24. The sale to Japan includes $74.6 million worth of “Rolling Airframe Missiles (RAM) Block 2B Tactical Missiles” and related equipment, and the principal contractor will be Raytheon Missiles and Defense. Latvia will get $220 million worth of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and related equipment, and the principal contractor will be Lockheed Martin.

The State Department approved three potential military sales, to Finland, Lithuania and the U.K., worth more than $1.5 billion combined, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Oct. 23.

For all the talk of a climate club, where trade among countries inside the club is privileged, panelists at the Niskanen Center said the failure of the U.S. and the EU to reach an agreement on green steel in two years of talking shows how far off that possibility is.

The U.S. and the EU this month extended the U.S.-EU Science and Technology Agreement for five years, the State Department announced Oct. 23. The agreement, first signed in 1997, has been extended four previous times and helps support research collaboration between the two sides in critical and emerging technologies.

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls last week released the presentation slides from its Defense Trade Advisory Group plenary meeting earlier this month. During the plenary, DTAG members heard updates on DDTC’s effort to revise U.S. Munitions List controls (see 2310120063), suggested ways to expedite license approvals for marketing demonstrations associated with foreign military sales (see 2310130032) and more.

The Bureau of Industry and Security sent a proposed rule for interagency review that could make clarifications and updates to the Defense Priorities and Allocations System Regulation, which is used to prioritize certain defense-related contracts and orders. BIS sent the rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Oct. 17.

The State Department on Oct. 17 sent a proposed rule for interagency review that could make changes to certain registration fees under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. An agency official said earlier this month the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls was preparing to soon propose changes to those fees (see 2310120063).

Intelligence officials from U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand met with industry officials and academics this week to discuss ways to improve security guardrails around emerging technologies, said the FBI, which organized the meetings. The talks included officials from each of the Five Eyes countries and were held near Silicon Valley as part of the first Emerging Technology and Securing Innovation Security Summit, which the FBI said will help government and industry discuss threats to innovation and coming trends in the use and exploitation of emerging technology, and find “means to work together to advance both economic security and public safety.”

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls will be “migrating” to the “FedRAMP High instance of a multifactor authentication solution” in its Defense Export Control and Compliance System to improve security, the agency announced this week. DDTC said all users should log into DECCS “which will ensure that your account information and passwords are automatically synced with the new upgraded instance.”