How is international armaments cooperation different from Foreign Military Sales?

When doing International Armaments Cooperation (IAC) activities, the U.S. may work with friends and allies across the entire system acquisition life cycle. FMS normally (unless a policy exception is approved) occurs later in the life cycle after the system has already been fully developed and placed into production. IAC primarily represents opportunities to cooperatively work with other countries in the earlier developmental phases of a system’s life cycle.

IAC is generally conducted with nations that have solid political and economic ties with the U.S., similar military requirements, and a reasonably robust defense, science and technology base. Although some countries may be quite important from a political, economic, or military standpoint, if they have different military requirements or lack a substantial defense industrial base, there may be little potential for successful IAC activity.

The core objectives of International Armaments Cooperation (IAC) typically include the following:

• Operational: increase military effectiveness through interoperability and partnership with allies and coalition partners
• Economic: reduce weapons acquisition cost by sharing costs, economies of scale and avoiding duplication of development efforts with our allies and friends
• Technical: access the best defense technology worldwide and help minimize the capabilities gap with allies and coalition partners
• Political: strengthen alliances and relationships with other friendly countries
• Industrial: bolster domestic and allied defense industrial bases

The USD(A&S) established the Office of International Cooperation (IC) to oversee IAC activities. The USD(P) has a supporting role in IC by reviewing international agreements for foreign policy considerations.

In addition to the military department sponsored IAC overseas offices, the DoW assigns dedicated IAC personnel within countries that conduct a significant volume of IAC activity with the U.S. These dedicated armaments cooperation personnel assigned overseas serve as the in-country liaison for the USD(A&S). They assist the host government obtain information on U.S. equipment and programs as well as help DoW acquisition organizations obtain information on host nation equipment, requirements and programs in support of IAC. This function extends to assisting industry in gaining access to the other nation’s defense markets and in developing cooperative programs.

IAC/IC programs use international agreements as the official government-to-government document rather than Letters of Offer and Acceptance (LOAs). Under one or more of the IAC/IC authorities, the U.S. and one or more countries are agreeing to cooperate in research, development, acquisition, or sustainment activity. The international agreement serves as the basis to define the extent and methods for the cooperative activity. Fundamentally, the participants must agree on how the work will be performed, how any costs will be shared and the extent of rights to utilize the results of the cooperative activities. International agreements may be referred to as Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) or Memorandums of Agreement (MOAs). Unlike LOAs, international agreements constitute a binding commitment subject to international law. DoD Instruction 5530.03, International Agreements, governs the international agreements process.

Unlike LOAs, international agreements are developed through a process of negotiation. To assist in developing armaments cooperation international agreements, the DoW created the international agreements generator. This software permits draft agreements to be quickly developed while ensuring they conform to relevant U.S. law, regulations, and policies as well as the generally accepted international agreement formats and norms used by foreign nations.