The Pentagon on Tuesday defended its process for selling weapons to foreign militaries, saying that any delays are due to oversight requirements.
Vice Adm. Joseph Rixey, director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, said congressional criticism of the program is “misplaced,” since the process of selling gear to foreign militaries is slow because of required validations to ensure weapons are used responsibly.
“The FMS [foreign military sales] system is burdened, but it’s not broken,” he told the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations at the third in a series of hearings on improving the foreign military sales process.
Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., and chairwoman of the subcommittee, said the system needs reform and should be sped up, while still looking out for the national security interests of the U.S.
“As with many large and multifaceted programs, FMS also comes with an inherent set of bureaucratic challenges. Some observers think the process is needlessly delayed, and hinders the ability to deliver military capabilities to our partners engaged in many of the same conflicts or confronting the same threats we do,” Hartzler said in her opening statement.
Rep. Jackie Speier, R-Calif., and ranking member of the committee, however, urged members to “dig deeper.” While many critics of the system say it causes countries to forgo purchasing from the U.S. in favor of other countries, Speier pushed back and said members should demand concrete numbers on how many sales have actually been lost.
Hartzler said the National Security Council is partly to blame for the slow process and said she supported amendments being considered on the House floor this week as the part of the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act to increase oversight of the White House advisory board.
“It’s my understanding that FMS cases for fighter aircraft that began well over two years ago have been delayed due to opaque and bureaucratic deliberations at the National Security Council,” she said. “This is very unfortunate, and I wholeheartedly agree with Chairman [Rep. Mac] Thornberry’s recent assessment that the NSC has become an organization making military operational decisions, building misinformation campaigns, and absorbing most national security functions from within the White House.”
