What are nonstandard items in Foreign Military Sales?

The use of aging weapon systems beyond their original life expectancies has placed unexpected demands on supply systems initially provisioned to support shorter life cycles. A combination of diminishing manufacturing support, failure of electronic components, fatigue and corrosion of non-electronic parts, and age, has created unanticipated demands for spares supporting older weapons systems. Exacerbating the problem, the original equipment manufacturer may not be capable of supplying spares, repair parts and engineering support for aging weapon systems. The original manufacturer may no longer exist.

Commercial buying services (CBS) involve the purchase of defense articles and services that cannot be effectively acquired through other means. This may include nonstandard items, commercial off-the-shelf items, standard articles that the IA determines to be unobtainable within a reasonable time, and certain repairs or other services.

The purchase of nonstandard items can have an impact on the follow-on support provided by the DoW. Nonstandard items, as they relate to FMS, may be defined as any items or equipment not included in the DoW inventory or not purchased for regular use by the DoW. The DoW also considers as nonstandard those country-peculiar system configurations resulting from the installation of a nonstandard item on equipment or systems that make it dissimilar to like systems in the DoW inventory.

Nonstandard items are normally in FMS channels for the following reasons:

• The international partner may change an item’s design to improve the desired mission.
• The U.S. may change the design for security reasons.
• An item may become obsolete as a result of technological advancements and improvements.

Follow-on support problems are encountered, because there usually is no ICP or item manager assigned responsibility for managing nonstandard items. Therefore, instead of using a relatively standard requisition and distribution system, manual procedures must be used to satisfy international partner demands. This not only proves more costly to the U.S. but also increases the replacement time and costs for the international partner.

Finding sources for supply of nonstandard items, particularly spare parts for end items no longer in the DoW inventory, has been an ongoing challenge. System support buyouts and efforts to withhold items with FMS requirements from disposal are providing only a partial answer to this problem. CBS contracts, such as PROS, are filling an important need in this area. In addition to nonstandard item support, CBS processes are increasingly the source of last resort for defense articles and services that cannot be supplied by the standard DoW logistics system in a timely manner. As the DoW emphasizes business-like practices, including less stock and more direct vendor delivery, CBS efforts are becoming even more important.

Another use of the term “nonstandard” applies when the international partner requests DoW support for an item that the international partner purchased commercially, in a configuration not supported by the DoW. In this situation, it may become necessary for the international partner to provide manufacturing design specifications from the prime vendor to the DoW in order to determine the level of supportability through the DoW. This configuration study can be funded through an FMS LOA.