Courtesy Photo | Cpl. Shelley McCammon and Pvt. Derek McKenzie, members of the Canadian 435th...... read more read more
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FORT BELVOIR, Va. — Last year, a South American country used the Defense Logistics Agency’s Foreign Military Sales Program to purchase an old, rusted-out fire truck and turn it into something useable.
“The 1947 fire truck was just a big piece of rust and never looked like it would drive again,” said Linda Kimberlin, DLA Logistics operations logistics management specialist. “The next picture they show me, it’s beautiful: It’s painted beautiful red, with new ladders, wheels and tires on it.”
She said it looked spectacular, and now that country has a fully operational fire truck thanks to FMS.
The FMS Program is the government-to-government method for selling U.S. government vehicles, equipment, and other goods and services to foreign militaries. The foreign governments pay total costs, and all deals are marked by a signed government-to-government agreement.
FMS is part of security cooperation authorized by the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control Act of 1968. In order for a foreign country to purchase DoD items, Kimberlin said, a letter is sent from an eligible foreign nation’s government to its U.S. Embassy. The embassy forwards the request to the State Department, which then determines what the requestor may or may not have. Following that, requests are sent to a case manager.
FMS cases are assigned to DLA or one of the military services for management by the Defense Department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The Army, Air Force and Navy oversee cases involving service-managed equipment.
DLA manages the spare parts that go with the services’ weapons systems, so in those cases, the agency has a secondary support role, Kimberlin said.
“We support military department-managed FMS cases with our logistics processes, which are receiving, storing and issuing material, processing requisitions, billing for the material, and financially tracking those processes,” she said.
The two types of cases DLA manages are cases involving DLA Logistics Information Service and excess defense items managed by DLA Disposition Services, she said.
DLA Logistics Information Service provides foreign customers with codifi-cation services and cataloging data for DLA- and service-managed items. The information ranges from national stock numbers and sources to descriptions and weights.
“DLA Disposition Services manages excess defense articles,” Kimberlin said. “Excess material is turned into DLA Disposition Services, which can sell it at a reduced price to a foreign country.”
DLA Disposition Services doesn’t sell any actively used combat uniform, U.S.-only technology items, items containing friend or foe identification, or anything with a digitized pattern, including uniforms and accessories.
“We sell to foreign customers, not so they can be aggressors, but so they can defend their own country or their own region, keep balance of power, and … help us as a partner,” Kimberlin said.
DLA sells to Canada, Mexico, all of Western Europe, Israel, Taiwan, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan, among many other countries, she said. In total, DLA deals with more than 100 countries, involving nearly $2 billion in annual sales.
She said countries buy items from DLA daily, and she recently met with Canadian representatives about buying spare parts for C-130 Hercules aircraft the country purchased.
“They had one C-130 last year. Two more are being delivered early,” she said. “So we’re scrambling to keep up with the spare parts because they came off the production line early.”
Kimberlin also recently met with Israeli representatives who told her they have more than 10,000 requisitions in DLA’s system.
“Israel is usually one of our top five purchasers,” she said. “Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Korea, Egypt and Israel are usually always vying for the top five positions.”
As a part of the FMS Program, representatives of foreign countries can visit DLA activities, such as DLA Disposition Services, to view excess material and determine if they want to purchase an item, Susan Witek, DLA foreign visit coordinator, said.
“Excess material is sold as is, where is,” Kimberlin said. “So it behooves them to come and look at the material because it can be in poor condition or it can be salvageable, and they want to know that before they spend the money.”
This is one of two types of visits a foreign representative makes to a DLA activity. The other is when foreign flag and general officers visit DLA Headquarters and meet with the director or another senior leader.
“They will generally do a courtesy visit and ask for a DLA overview that tells them how we are set up and structured,” Witek said.
She said representatives use these visits to learn about DLA and how it works, and most say they appreciate the idea of all of the services buying their supplies through one agency rather than all of them doing it on their own.
“The visits are very important because VIPs like to come here and see how this side of the world works,” Kimberlin said.
| Date Taken: | 02.09.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 02.15.2012 12:52 |
| Story ID: | 83888 |
| Location: | FORT BELVOIR, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 82 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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