U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) in fiscal year 2023 jumped nearly 60 percent over the prior year to a record $80.9 billion, driven by more than a dozen billion dollar-plus deals, the Department of State said on Monday.
Poland stood as the largest FMS customer, registering $29.8 billion in deals that include AH-64E Apache helicopters, High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System, and M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks.
In FY ’22, the U.S. tallied $51.9 billion in FMS deals.
The State Department fact sheet said that of the FY ’23 FMS activity, $62.3 billion was funded by U.S. allies and partners, $14.7 billion through various State and Defense Department programs, and $4 billion through the Foreign Military Financing program.
The three-year rolling average of FMS activities was $55.9 billion, up 22 percent from the $45.8 billion three-year average through FY ’22, the State Department said.
Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) of defense equipment and services increase 2.5 percent in FY ’23 to $157.5 billion from $153.6 billion, the department said. DCS deals notified to Congress last year include $2.8 billion for F-35 wing assemblies and sub-assemblies for Italy and $1.8 billion for the manufacturing of General Electric [GE] F414-INS6 engine hardware.
The combined FMS and DCS activity in FY ’23 was $238.4 billion, a 16 percent increase over the $205.5 million in FY ’22.
The three-year rolling average of DCS deals through FY ’23 was $124.9 billion, 17 percent higher than the $107.2 billion average through FY ’22.