How does money flow through a Foreign Military Sales case?

Funds that are required to cover outlays and/or deliveries that are anticipated to occur before the receipt of the first quarterly payment. These funds must accompany the accepted Letter of Offer and Acceptance.

The legal instrument used by the USG to transfer itemized defense articles, defense services, and design and construction services to foreign partners.

When used under the authorities provided in the Arms Export Control Act for Foreign Military Sales, the LOA is a binding agreement signed by the USG and the foreign partner to transfer such articles and services.

When used under Building Partnership Capacity (BPC) authorities, the BPC LOA is not signed by the Benefitting Partner.

A type of account, designated by law as a “trust fund,” regardless of any other meaning of the term “trust fund.” A trust fund account is usually either a receipt, an expenditure, or a revolving fund account (trust revolving fund account).

The military department or defense agency responsible for the execution of military assistance programs. With respect to FMS, the military department or defense agency assigned responsibility by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency to prepare an LOA and to implement an FMS case. The implementing agency is responsible for the overall management of the actions that will result in delivery of the materials or services set forth in the LOA that was accepted by a foreign country or international organization.

List of dollar amounts and when they are due from the foreign customer. The payment schedule is included in the Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) presented to the customer. After acceptance of the LOA, the payment schedule generally serves as the basis for billing to the customer. Changes in the estimated costs of an Foreign Military Sales case may require changes in the accompanying payment schedule.

Payments made to a prime contractor during the life of a fixed-price type contract on the basis of a percentage of incurred total costs or total direct labor and material costs.

An account established for each Foreign Military Sales country/international organization for the purpose of recording and safeguarding unidentified and certain earmarked funds for future use

A USG Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA), and any subsequent Amendment or Modification, that is the legal instrument used by the USG to transfer defense articles and defense services under the FMS program. See also "FMS" and "LOA."

A group of programs authorized by federal statutes by which the United States provides defense articles, military training, and other defense-related services by grant, lease, loan, credit, or cash sales in furtherance of national policies and objectives, and those that are funded and authorized through the Department of State to be administered by Department of Defense/Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which are considered part of security cooperation.

A financial system providing DoD-level financial management functions for the security assistance (SA) program. This includes centralized Foreign Military Sales (FMS) trust fund accounting, foreign customer billing, and financial management reporting. DIFS consolidates FMS data from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and other implementing agencies, and provides efficient accountability for oversight of the financial and program management aspects of SA.

One of the departments within the DoD created by the National Security Act of 1947, as amended. The Military Departments are: the Department of the Air Force, the Department of the Army, and the Department of the Navy.

The sum of (1) budget authority provided for a given fiscal year, (2) balances of amounts brought forward from prior years that remain available for obligation, and (3) amounts authorized to be credited to a specific fund or account during that year, including transfers between funds or accounts.