**GAO-10-952**                      Published: Sep 21, 2010. Publicly Released: Sep 21, 2010.                  

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## Highlights

The U.S. government exports billions of dollars of defense articles and services annually to foreign entities, generally through direct commercial sales (DCS) from U.S. companies under licenses issued by the State Department (State) or through the Department of Defense (DOD) Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. GAO has previously reported on weaknesses in the export control system. As requested, GAO (1) identified the magnitude and nature of defense articles and services exported and (2) assessed information currently reported on defense exports and any gaps and limitations in defense export data. To conduct this work, GAO analyzed export data from DOD for FMS and the Department of Commerce's U.S. Census Bureau (Census) for DCS for 2005 through 2009; reviewed relevant laws and regulations; assessed State and DOD reports on defense exports; reviewed agency data systems documentation; and interviewed officials from State, DOD, Homeland Security, and Census.

## Recommendations

## Matter for Congressional Consideration

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## Topics

International Affairs

Data collectionData integrityExportingForeign military salesForeign military sales policiesForeign trade agreementsForeign trade policiesInternational relationsInternational tradeInternational trade regulationMilitary aircraftMilitary materielMilitary systems analysisReporting requirements