WASHINGTON — In recent weeks, a number of allies and partners have been told their expected weapons deliveries from the United States are being slowed down as the US prioritizes its own coffers, sending shockwaves through defense communities in Europe and Asia that have come to rely on US weapons.
And while analysts tell Breaking Defense there has yet to be any sense of a major shift away from buying American weapons, they acknowledge that the decision to kick allies back down the queue, especially when those countries have already put money down, fits into a broader pattern of concerns around American arm sales that could lead countries to look for possible alternatives.
“What we’re going to see is the inevitable tension between the administration’s stated desire to have our allies buy American and buy more … and likewise the need to put ourselves first to replenish stockpiles,” Tom Karako, a missile defense expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told Breaking Defense.
While questions about US reliability over the past year have cropped up on an array of topics from NATO to Ukraine, there was less concern about Foreign Military Sales (FMS), especially as the Trump administration pushed forward large numbers of FMS cases and cast arms sales as an economic boon for American workers.
