Defense trade reference

How Foreign Military Sales works. Stage by stage. Role by role.

The FMS process runs through ten stages and fifteen roles. Every page here traces to the SAMM, U.S. Code, CRS reports, and DSCA public releases — and tells you what practitioners watch for.

One email a month. No pitch, no spam.

The pipeline. Ten stages.

Walk the full pipeline →Find your role →

From the first requirements conversation to case closure. Each stage has an owner, a clock, and a failure mode. The deep-dives cover the stages where cases stall.

Requirements, demos, informal P&A. The stage nobody tracks and everybody pays for later.

01LOR Submission

The partner formally asks, via the SCO. An incomplete request goes back for more information.

02LOR Assessment

The IA checks it against Table C5.T4A. Actionable or not.

03Case Development

LOA Data built in DSAMS. MILAP is the milestone that matters.

04Congressional Notification

30 days statutory, 15 for NATO+5. An informal review comes first.

The Implementing Agency signs and sends the LOA. The offer clock starts running.

06Partner Acceptance

Signature plus initial deposit. No deposit, no case.

07Implementation

DFAS posts financial implementation. OA flows to the IA.

Contracts, production, delivery, training. Years, not quarters.

09Reconciliation & Closure

Supply/Services Complete to Final Closed. Sustainment moves to follow-on cases.

Featured guides

GuideDoes Congress have to approve arms sales?For a Foreign Military Sale at or above the statutory thresholds ($25M in major defense equipment for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member countries, Australia, Israel, Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea, $14M for every other purchaser, NATO organizations included), the law requires a formal notification to Congress before the offer can be made, not an approval vote. Congress then has 15 days to block the sale by joint resolution for NATO member countries and organizations, Australia, Israel, Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea, and 30 days for every other purchaser; if it does not, the offer proceeds when the review period expires.Guides · Current as of 5 October 2026 GuideWhy does FMS take so long?The manual puts a clock on only part of the calendar: the Implementing Agency is expected to offer 85% of Letters of Offer and Acceptance within 45 days to 150 days of the request, a congressional notification runs through an informal review with notional (not binding) timelines of 20 days to 40 days and then a statutory 15 days or 30 days, and an accelerated-closure case is expected to close within 24 months of its last delivery.Guides · Current as of 12 October 2026 GuideWhy does Foreign Military Sales cost what it costs?Every Foreign Military Sales program expense is recovered from the purchaser, so a sale's price is the U.S. Government's estimated cost of the article or service plus the charges that recover the cost of running the program. The Department of War quotes a single estimated unit price, and the price on the Letter of Offer and Acceptance stays an estimate until the bill shows the actual cost.Guides · Current as of 6 October 2026