The Aerospace Industries Association, Professional Services Council and the National Defense Industrial Association have issued a report providing the State Department with recommendations on how to transform the foreign military sales process and defense trade system.
Comments and feedback from the three associations’ members representing aerospace and defense companies informed the report’s recommendations, AIA said Thursday.
AIA, NDIA and PSC classified the recommendations into five categories: strengthening defense trade leadership and resources; streamlining FMS and commercial sales authorities and management; simplifying export authorizations; reviewing congressional notifications and rethinking government funding; and enhancing government-industry information sharing.
To advance defense trade leadership, specific recommendations include investing in defense trade workforce development and optimizing the use of the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls licensing talent and outsourcing while implementing a modern process for routine procedural licenses.
For the second aspect, the three associations call for the acceleration of policy decision-making and development of timelines to eliminate indefinite processing of export authorization requests and efforts to reserve FMS for critical and sensitive capabilities.
“The FMS systems should pivot from a focus on simply transactional processes to information sharing and results-driven assessments. As adversaries continue to evolve and use the latest technology available, the U.S. must keep pace with innovation, responsiveness and alignment with industry partners to protect national security,” said David Berteau, president and CEO of PSC.
“These recommendations are an important step toward strengthening interoperability with our allies and partners to support the National Defense Strategy,” said NDIA President and CEO David Norquist.
“Tapping into industry’s experience working with the FMS process, we developed these recommendations to allow the U.S. government to maximize speed, flexibility, and innovation in our defense trade system,” said Eric Fanning, president and CEO of AIA.
Berteau, Norquist and Fanning are previous Wash100 Award recipients.
