The state department of the U.S recently announced that the weapon sales from various American firms has increased by 13% in the year 2018. They further disclosed that in the fiscal year 2018, the U.S earned $55.66 bn in terms if foreign military sales, which was valued at $4.93 bn in the year 2017. With the increasing sales of foreign military weapons, the government of U.S acts as a liaison between American firms and foreign partners. The total direct commercial sales was valued at $128.1 bn in the year 2017 and is now capped to $136.6 bn in the fiscal year 2018. Direct commercial sales is the process through which a foreign partner can directly access and buy weapons from the defense industry.
The Trump government has made a remarkable principal which states that economic security leads to national security. Therefore, they focus more on selling American military goods and enhance their economic growth. Also, in this year the Trump department chalked out a new policy called as CAT – Conventional Arms Transfer Policy and a new guiding principal for selling unmanned military weapons. Both these policies were meant to increase the weapon sales. Furthermore, they said that this year due to changes in conventional arms policy and large size of certain military packages, the sales may vary in the coming years. There sales have been growing steadily in the last three years. The officials added by saying that the CAT policy will result into natural sales growth, although it is difficult to say how much.
Direct Commercial Sales Likely to see more Effect on Weapon Procurement
CAT and FMS to be The U.S government officials also stated that they think a 13% increase in sales every year is more than satisfactory for them. They also said that we will try our best to maintain this percentage of sales but due to several external factors, it is hard to set an objective. The changes in CAT policy and foreign reforms, some of the countries can use direct commercial sales for purchasing weapons. The officials at the U.S government further added by saying that DCS is grabbing more attention that foreign military services FMS. But at the same time, there are some new systems and capabilities which are more likely to remain in the FMS queue.
