Foreign Military Sales (FMS) appear regularly on the Pentagon’s daily list of contracts. Through FMS, the U.S. government procures and transfers weaponry and matériel to allied nations and international organizations. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) issued at least $5,392,261,519 worth of FMS contracts during March and April 2018.

Distillation of these contracts is presented into two parts. This first part focuses on Western and Far East allies of the U.S. war industry. Part Two will focus on Gulf Council (GCC) countries and other undemocratic regimes.

FMS DOWN UNDER

Boeing received $17.9 million to upgrade the P-8A maintenance training system for Australia. Boeing received $40,012,500 for operations & maintenance services on Australia’s P-8A training devices. Work takes place in Edinburgh, Australia. Promising ‘jobs’ and economic benefits is one way the U.S. war industry lures elites in foreign nations to sign on the dotted line. ISM Corp. received $7 million for engineering on Australia’s SEA 4000 and -5000 programs, which one of Australia’s biggest project military expenses after the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Australia has committed to purchasing over 70 F-35 aircraft. This makes the U.S. war industry salivate. Australia is upgrading its military infrastructure in order to handle its incoming purchases of the F-35, the costliest product in the history of warfare. Many U.S. corporations are involved in this infrastructure upgrade, in addition to fabricating and furnishing the F-35. The entire process is a win-win for the U.S. war industry.

FMS SOUTH KOREA – South Korea is one of the U.S. war industry’s favorite customers.

Boeing received roughly $96.4 million for AH-64E helicopter production support. Longbow LLC received $15 million for Fire Control Radar (FCR) post-production work on the same type of helicopters. Korean Air Lines received just over $9 million for maintenance on some of South Korea’s helicopters.

Northrop Grumman received $6.2 million for Large Aircraft Infrared Counter Measures (LAIRCM) equipment & support. Systems Engineering Support Co. (SESCO) received roughly $2.9 million for maintenance group units, which are components of a Naval data distribution network.

FMS CONTAINING CHINA

Boeing received $30.7 million for work on Taiwan’s AH-64E helicopters. Lockheed Martin received $32.3 million for logistics for Taiwan’s F-16 aircraft.

Boeing received $64.7 million to upgrade mission computers on Japanese E-767 aircraft and ground systems. Lockheed Martin received $24,860,231 to update & revise F-35A integration requirements for Japan. Northrop Grumman received $13.8 million and received roughly $51.8 million work on Japan’s E-2 trainers and AN/APX-122A units.

Lockheed Martin received $2 million for AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 undersea warfare systems for Japan. Lockheed Martin received over $3.3 million for Common Display System (CDS) consoles for Japan.

CENTRAL AND SOUTH ASIA

Boeing received $262 million to provide India with C-17 aircraft. (India purchases more arms from the Israeli war industry than any other nation.)

Orbital ATK received two separate installments (1, 2) of $86.4 million to provide Afghanistan with AC-208 armed reconnaissance aircraft. The aircraft are paid for using Afghan Security Forces Funds, which come from the U.S. taxpayer.

ARMING EUROPEAN ALLIES

Boeing received funding to help manufacture P-8A aircraft for Norway ($81,110,155) UK ($60,832,616). General Atomics received over $80.8 million for the UK’s MQ-9B Protector program.

Boeing received $11.4 million to provide Poland with RQ-21A Blackjack. Poland also received AMRAAM from Raytheon, as detailed in Part Two of this study.

Lockheed Martin received $116.9 million for Modernized Laser Range Finder Designators (LRFD) for the Netherlands’ AH-64 helicopters.

Raytheon received $36.8 million for lifecycle management and technical support required to maintain a Tomahawk depot facility. FMS UK = $141,774; 2.84%.

Sechan Electronics Inc. received $12.6 million to provide Turkey (34%), Canada (27%), and the Netherlands (39%) with electronic parts for MK48 torpedoes.

FMS TO UNSPECIFIED NATIONS

Rohde & Schwarz USA received nearly $16 million for new high frequency (HF) transceiver systems. RUAG Aviation received $25.1 million for guidance & control sections used on AIM-95P-5 Sidewinder missiles. ViaSat received $42 million to sustain AN/USQ-140(V) MIDS systems. “Specific countries will be driven by requirements.”

LARGE MULTI-NATION FMS

Boeing received funding for engineering on F/A-18A-F and EA-18G for Australia ($2,939,614); Finland ($354,602); Kuwait ($354,602); Malaysia ($354,602); Switzerland ($354,601); Canada ($345,737); Spain ($345,737). Harris Corp. received funding for fiber channel network switch systems for F/A-18, EA-18G, and E-2D aircraft for Australia ($2,704,000) and Kuwait ($3,536,000).

BTAS Inc. received $19.5 million for advisory & assistance services to the ‘Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence and Networks HN directorate’ at Hanscom AFB. This contract doesn’t specify FMS, but all previous BTAS contracts with Hanscom have been FMS, so this author is including it here.

Capco Inc. received almost $40 million for impulse cartridges for airborne countermeasures and to test aircraft ejection devices. Includes FMS to South Korea, Netherlands, Austria, Australia, Japan, Israel, and Brazil.

Lockheed Martin received $828.7 million for FMS (Finland, South Korea, Romania): Guided MLRS.

Raytheon received funding for SM-2 and SM-6 engineering & technical services – Taiwan $1,286,000, Australia $305,607, Germany $162,501, Japan $75,000, and South Korea $25,000.

F-35 JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER

Lockheed Martin received $65.6 million for F-35 air vehicle spares and received $102.7 million for F-35 air systems for FMS. Lockheed Martin received $265.8 million for long lead material & parts for LRIP of F-35 air systems FMS.

United Technologies received $3.8 million to continue supporting the F135 Propulsion System Component Improvement program for FMS. United Technologies received $33.9 million for materials, parts, and components for F135 propulsion systems.

Christian Sorensen, a Newsbud Contributing Author & Analyst, is a U.S. military veteran and independent journalist.

**Sixty-three FMS contracts were issued during the months of March and April of 2018. These FMS contracts totaled $5,392,261,519, with each contract averaging $85.6 million. (FMS during January and February of 2018 totaled slightly more than $2.2 billion.) All of these estimates are very conservative. In cases where the distribution between FMS and U.S. allocations was unclear, this researcher rounded down all FMS figures.