WASHINGTON -– As both the Pentagon and Congress seek ways to speed up processing Foreign Military Sales (FMS) requests, some of the top military officers in charge of such programs are warning that potential cuts to the workforce, whether by overhead cuts or by a government shutdown, will undermine any such efforts.
Both Vice Adm. Joseph Rixey, director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, and Rear Adm. James Shannon, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for international programs, raised concerns over the future of the FMS workforce at the annual Common Defense conference, held here Sept. 7.
The two appeared on a panel alongside other Pentagon leaders in the foreign military sales community. After a series of speeches, the moderator asked if there were any closing remarks, leading Shannon – who joked that he was free to be blunt, as he is leaving his position shortly – to warn about the stress the workforce is already under.
While noting that some government workers who handle FMS cases would be exempt from a shutdown due to the way their funding is set up, Shannon pointed out that “the key people” who handle the policy side of clearing these weapons for sale would be frozen out of their offices.
“The fact is, if there is going to be a logjam, that’s the area it’s going to be. So we have to be very careful when we talk about reducing government investment, because the consequences can be slower government,” he said.
Speaking to Defense News after the panel, Rixey echoed those concerns.
“It has to be staffed,” Rixey said of the system. “If you look at the ways sales are going up, if workforce doesn’t correspond with sales going up, or at least stay steady, it’s going to have an obvious impact on time because you’re running everything through that particular system.”
“So yeah, we’re concerned about it, and especially if sequestration kicks in. It won’t get faster if [we] take people out,” he continued. “And that applies all through the lane, not only in disclosure but also in contracting. All things go to a contract. So do you have enough artisans in place to get a contract award? So yeah, it’s a concern.”
The FMS process has come under increased scrutiny over the last year, with complaints about its speed repeated both inside the Pentagon and by members of Congress who worry allies are not able to lay hands on vital weaponry to help the joint fight. The case of fighter jets to Kuwait and Qatar, delayed for close to three years, stands out in that context.
As a result, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James has rolled out new guidelines for Air Force FMS handlers, with an eye on training them to move more quickly. It’s something the members of the panel said they appreciated, even as Rixey and others hit back at the notion that the process is inherently flawed.
Heidi Grant, the US Air Force’s longtime point person on foreign sales, perhaps best summed up the feeling of the panel when she stated that “the US government FMS process is not broken.”
“It’s actually thriving, and doing better than ever,” Grant said. “We’re going to continue to improve it, but when I talk to partners around the world and ask them to give me a better model, there isn’t on.”
