Defense industry officials said Wednesday that foreign military sales are even more important to the defense industrial base as domestic spending shrinks, as they urged lawmakers to simplify the process.
Even though recent budget deals have provided some relief from sequestration, the military is drawing down and tight budgets have reduced the amount the U.S. government is spending on defense priorities.
“As annual revenues have gone flat, due to reduced domestic spending, foreign sales have become more relatively important,” Tom Davis, a senior fellow at the National Defense Industrial Association, said at a hearing of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
Davis said the bureaucratic process of selling military equipment to foreign militaries can sometimes take years, a timeline many countries avoid by going to buy from other countries.
“If we cannot provide it, someone else certainly will,” he said.
Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., and chairwoman of the subcommittee, said selling equipment to foreign militaries can help both the U.S. industrial base grow and the country build better partnerships with allies.
“While we strive to rebuild the capacity and capability of our own military, many of our foreign partners and allies look to do the same. To that effect, they seek to procure military equipment and services from the U.S. But if this takes too long, or if bureaucratic red tape proves too debilitating, our foreign partners and allies may seek help elsewhere,” Hartzler said in her opening statement.
But Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., and ranking member of the subcommittee, stressed that national security must be the No. 1 priority in foreign military sales, even if that means it takes more time to make a decision to ensure weapons sold to friends today aren’t in the hands of enemies tomorrow.
Ensuring that the weapons the U.S. sells are used responsibly and in the country’s best interest is “a policy we can’t lose sight of,” she said.
