{"id":60725,"date":"2017-12-29T15:16:41","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T15:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2017\/12\/29\/2018-pentagon-priority-speeding-up-foreign-weapon-sales\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:31:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:31:04","slug":"2018-pentagon-priority-speeding-up-foreign-weapon-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2017\/12\/29\/2018-pentagon-priority-speeding-up-foreign-weapon-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"2018 Pentagon priority: Speeding up foreign weapon sales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Complaints about the speed of the foreign military sales process from allies, industry and within the Pentagon are nothing new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But those hoping for reform see potential in 2018, thanks to a group of leaders with a personal focus on building up allied capabilities and an administration that sees weapon sales as a way to grow American jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It starts with Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, who early on declared building up partner capabilities as one of his key objectives. That directive has been accompanied by a \u201csteady drumbeat\u201d on the issue, according to Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, who told reporters on Dec. 21 that he would be working on the issue directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shanahan, a former Boeing executive, said he has been meeting with Lt. Gen. Charles Hooper, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency head and Ellen Lord, the Pentagon\u2019s top acquisition official, to find ways to speed up the FMS process from the level of the Office of the Secretary of Defense \u2014 or as Shanahan put it, \u201cmaking sure we\u2019re not standing on the air hose waiting for a signature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also identified Japan, South Korea and the Middle East as three areas of focus for speeding the process up \u2014 perhaps unsurprising, as U.S. companies brought in roughly $22 billion in sale from Central Asia\/the near East and $7.96 billion to the Indo-Pacific in 2017. <\/p>\n\n\n\t