Overview of Export Programs

There are four principle means by which small arms and light weapons are shipped abroad legally from the United States:

Government-Negotiated Sales

Through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, the U.S. government (represented by the Defense Department) negotiates weapons sales directly with foreign militaries. FMS may cover sales of new equipment (purchased by the Pentagon from U.S. weapons manufacturers), coproduction of weapons overseas, or sales from surplus Pentagon stocks.

An FMS deal is usually initiated with a request for weapons transmitted from the U.S. embassy in the customer country to the "implementing agency"—the Army or the Defense Logistics Agency in the case of small/light arms. Copies of the request are sent to several relevant government agencies, including the State Department's Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs, the Defense Security Assistance Agency (DSAA) in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and the Unified Command responsible for the region where the customer country is located. If no objections are raised, the implementing agency, in conjunction with the DSAA, begins to prepare the contract for the arms package. By law, the U.S. administration must notify Congress 15-30 days before offering a sales contract to a foreign customer, if the proposed sale is valued at $14 million or more. (For more on this procedure, see the section on "Transparency and Government Data Sources.") = Internal hyperlink

Surplus Weapons Grants from the Government

In addition to sales of newly-manufactured weapons, the Pentagon gives away or sells at deep discount the vast oversupply of small/light weapons that it has in its post cold-war inventory. Most of this surplus is dispensed through the Excess Defense Articles (EDA) program.

The Foreign Assistance Act defines EDA as weapons or other items owned by the U.S. government, which were not procured in anticipation of military aid or sales. Originally only the southern-tier members of NATO were cleared to receive EDA, but following the 1991 Gulf war, many Middle Eastern and North African states were added; anti-narcotics aid provisions expanded EDA eligibility to include South American and Caribbean countries; and the "Partnership for Peace" program made most Central and Eastern European governments eligible for free surplus arms.

Around 1995, large scale grants and sales of small/light arms began occurring. In the past few years, over 300,000 rifles, pistols, machine guns and grenade launchers have been offered up.

 

Excess Defense Articles Given Away, 1995-1998

158,000 M16A1 assault rifles (principally to Bosnia, Israel, Philippines)

124,815 M14 rifles (principally to the Baltics and Taiwan)

26,780 pistols (principally to Philippines, Morocco, Chile, Bahrain)

1,740 machine guns (principally to Morocco, Bosnia)

10,570 grenade launchers (principally to Bahrain, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Morocco)

(Click here to see the source table.)

 

Surplus weapons are also provided to foreign governments under special Presidential authority to "draw down" U.S. military equipment to meet emergency needs. The Foreign Assistance Act provides permission for the President to transfer on a grant basis up to $150 million worth of military articles from U.S. stocks annually. The executive branch has used this provision increasingly in recent years, particularly in support of counter-narcotics efforts. In addition, Jordan and Bosnia have taken delivery of large quantities of surplus light arms under this emergency authority. U.S. law requires the President to notify Congress of any planned drawdowns of equipment, and also to notify Congress upon completion of delivery.

Industry-Direct Arms Sales

The vast majority of small arms exports from America occur through Direct Commercial Sales (DCS), negotiated between U.S. companies or brokers and foreign buyers. The foreign customer may be a government entity (e.g., interior ministry, justice ministry, ministry of defense, or national police), a corporation or person using the weapons for private security, or a gun vendor. Direct Commercial Sales must be approved by the State Department's Office of Defense Trade Controls or the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Export Administration, depending on the equipment. The Commerce Department regulates transfers of 12-gauge shotguns and components and shotgun shells, as well as stun guns and shock batons. The State Department is responsible for all other gun exports, including non-military rifles and pistols.

State Department-licensed sales are subject to the same Congressional pre-notification procedure as are FMS (that is, for sales over $14 million Congress must be given 15-30 days pre-notice). Commerce Department-licensed sales are not subject to any prior Congressional scrutiny.

In general, when the customer is a government entity, the choice of whether to use the government-to-government channel or to deal directly with the arms manufacturer or broker is up to the purchaser. Direct sales are quicker, sometimes cheaper and entail less oversight than do government-negotiated sales. In addition, both the Commerce and State Departments are less transparent about the deals they are licensing than the Pentagon is about sales it is negotiating. Many foreign customers have viewed this secrecy with favor, and therefore prefer to purchase arms directly from manufacturers.

According to the Section 655 Report for 1996 the State Department authorized $530 million in small arms exports to countries around the world in that year. The 1997 report shows $440 million of export license authorizations the following year. DCS license approvals do not represent final sales. The licenses are valid for four years, and it is currently not possible to determine how many of these licenses result in actual delivery of the weapons.

Covert Government Arms Supply

Clandestine U.S. government operations are another way in which small/light arms are exported from or by America. The National Security Act of 1947 authorizes covert political and military operations, including secret arms supply. The president must first make a "finding" that the operation is vital to U.S. national security. Section 505 of the act requires the Central Intelligence Agency, or other government agencies engaging in such activities, to notify the Congressional committees responsible for oversight of U.S. intelligence community activities of any arms supply operation undertaken valued at $1 million or more.

Because these programs are classified, little is known with any precision about the frequency, magnitude and specifics of covert arms supply. It is public knowledge, however, that during the Reagan Administration covert arms supply operations run by the Central Intelligence Agency (or the National Security Council) were a major source of small/light arms to insurgent groups around the world. These operations armed, trained and financed guerrillas fighting communist-backed state forces in Nicaragua, Angola, Afghanistan and Cambodia. Some of the weaponry supplied was manufactured in America; some, in an effort to hide U.S. support of the operation, was not.

Although it is generally believed that the U.S. government’s use of covert military supply operations has greatly diminished in the 1990s, calls for armed destabilization of the regimes in Iran and Iraq persist. Most recently, the U.S. administration announced its intention to arm Iraqi opposition (principally Iraqi Kurdish and Shiite groups) to sabotage the Iraqi economy and propel the overthrow of President Hussein. On-going covert arms supply to forces opposing the Sudanese regime is also reported, as well.