Beyond the provision of requisite support, these cases also serve as a practical means for enhancing mutu- ally beneficial and enduring bilateral relationships with foreign partners. In FMS parlance, a case consti- tutes an agreement between the U.S. Government and a partner nation by which the United States is obligated to provide specified goods and/or services in exchange for a monetary payment from the partner. This ar- rangement is formalized in a de facto contract, and this bilateral agreement is referred to as a Letter of Offer and Acceptance, or LOA. Once signed by both parties, the LOA obligates the U.S. Government to provide the deliverables specified in the LOA while committing the part- ner to paying the required amount for these goods and/or services. The LOA is the foundational element around which the FMS process is built. And the volume of cases managed is one of the primary metrics used to indi- cate the scale of effort by an office in the FMS enterprise. Based purely on the number of total cases managed compared to size of office, CG-922 has provided a disproportionately impactful resource for the United States since its incep- tion. The division has more than 130 active FMS cases spread across 64 countries, or nearly one-third of all countries across the entire world. In total, CG-922 has delivered nearly 700 assets (vessels and aircraft) and related support to 82 countries since 1997. More than half of all first-time cus- tomers have returned to CG-922 and established subsequent cases, a note- worthy achievement given the signifi- cant financial constraints that define most of the partners with which CG- 922 is working. Additionally, CG-922 has delivered equipment to multiple Services within the same partner. As an example, the Bangladesh coast guard, navy, and army all have active cases with the Coast Guard FMS pro- gram for boats and related support.
To add further perspective, the Coast Guard’s entire operating bud- get for 2024 was roughly $13 bil- lion appropriated by Congress and funds the entire authorized 44,500- employee workforce and the re- sources required to operate and maintain the organization’s assets. Having achieved nearly $1 billion in aggregated total case value, CG-922, by itself, currently manages a portfolio that equates to roughly 7.5 percent of the entire Coast Guard annual budget. Even more noteworthy, the CG-922 is doing this with a total workforce of 30 team members, nearly all of them funded by FMS customers (not U.S. taxpayers). From a value proposition stand- point, CG-922 provides the U.S. tax- payers with a tremendous return on investment. Only one billet within the office is funded by congressionally ap- propriated money; the remainder of the workforce is funded by a combina- tion of case funds (i.e., money drawn directly from one or more FMS cases) and FMS administration (the 3.2 per- cent fee built into every FMS case and paid for by the foreign partners to compensate the U.S. Government for the support needed to manage the FMS cases). This means that, for the cost of one civilian employee, CG-922 is enhancing bilateral relationships with numerous foreign partners, in- vesting nearly $1 billion into the do- mestic industrial base, and saving millions for the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard routinely shares news on operational successes that result in saving lives of mariners and property in the maritime domain, safeguarding natural resources, or in- terdicting and removing illegal drugs. Each of these successes speaks to the impact and relevance of the or- ganization in improving the lives of American citizens. The reward for the operational success is the Coast Guard’s establishment of heightened, expanded expectations that elevate the bar that defines success. The $1 billion milestone for CG-922 is similar in nature; it constitutes a
quantifiable milestone that illustrates the expansive reach and relevance that the FMS program has achieved but in no way equates to a finish line. On the contrary, the dramatic success of CG-922 highlights an escalation in the division’s role within the Security Cooperation enterprise. Expansion of bilateral relationships along with incorporation of new part- ners and additional lines of effort are already combining to fuel a dramatic expansion of requirements. Based on the current year-over-year growth, CG-922 is projected to achieve the $2 billion milestone in roughly one- third the time it took the division to reach $1 billion. As the trajectory of the Coast Guard’s involvement in the FMS en- terprise continues to elevate, the value that CG-922 will provide to both the Coast Guard and the Security Co- operation enterprise as a whole will expand dramatically. POSIL is chief of the Coast Guard Office of International Acquisition and a Security Co- operation and acquisition professional with nearly 20 years’ experience. He has a mas- ter’s degree from the Eisenhower School of National Security and Resource Strategy at the National Defense University and another from Troy State University; MBA degrees from the University of South Carolina and Wirts- chaftsuniversität Wien in Vienna, Austria; and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Del- aware. An Acquisition Corps member and a Level III-certified program manager in the De- partment of Homeland Security, he served as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and still serves as an officer in the Maryland Army National Guard. The author can be contacted at benjamin.w.posil@uscg.mil . The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the Department of Defense. Reproduction or reposting of articles from Defense Acquisition magazine should credit the authors and the magazine.
DAU Resources • Foreign Military Sales (Course)
July-August 2025 | DEFENSE ACQUISITION | 23
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