Defense & Intelligence Policy, Business and Technology

DoD Should Continue Prioritizing Sales to Foreign Governments

Homeland Security Today: GAO has found that DoD’s strategy of prioritizing the sale of defense equipment to foreign governments over recouping costs serves US interests.

DoD sells billions of dollars of defense equipment through its foreign military sales program, and it is required to recoup certain costs for research, development and some one-off expenses.

Foreign governments can ask DoD to waive these costs, and the agency has granted $16 billion in waivers over the last six years to help sales go through. In its report, GAO agrees that these waivers serve US interests, as they drive forward foreign military sales. Between 2012 through 2017, $8.8 billion in waivers were granted to the Middle East, $4.3 billion to the Pacific Region and $2.6 billion were approved to Europe.

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