The United States provides military equipment and training to partner countries through a variety of programs. Foreign partners may pay the U.S. government to administer the acquisition of materiel and services on their behalf through the FMS program. The United States also provides grants to some foreign partners through the FMF program to fund the partner’s purchase of materiel and services through the process used for FMS. In this report, we refer to FMS, FMF, and other State Department programs implemented by DOD as “traditional” security assistance programs. In recent years, Congress has expanded the number of security cooperation programs to include several new programs with funds appropriated to DOD, as well as administered and implemented by DOD, that focus on building partner capacity (BPC). See table 1 for descriptions of the BPC programs included in our report. DSCA oversees program administration for both traditional programs and newer BPC programs. DSCA establishes security assistance procedures and systems, provides training, and guides the activities of implementing agencies. Implementing agencies of the military departments—the Army, Navy, and Air Force—are responsible for preparing, processing, and executing the vast majority of security assistance agreements.While these implementing agencies maintain their own unique systems and procedures, DSCA provides overall guidance through the Security Assistance Management Manual and associated policy memos. DSCA provides education and training to security cooperation officials through its Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management. Both the traditional and BPC programs that DSCA administers use the FMS process to provide security assistance, but, as shown in figure 1, some roles, responsibilities, and actors differ. In contrast to traditional programs, under the BPC programs, the United States consults with the partner country, but takes lead in identifying partner requirements and funds, obtains, and delivers equipment on the partner’s behalf. The form of the FMS process used to implement BPC programs is referred to as the “pseudo-FMS” process. While the many steps of the FMS and pseudo-FMS processes can be grouped in different ways, they fall into five general phases: assistance request, agreement development, acquisition, delivery, and case closure. See figure 1 for a summary of selected entities and their roles in these phases of the FMS and pseudo- FMS processes. Assistance Request. During the assistance request phase, in traditional FMS, the partner country identifies its requirements (needed materiel or services) and documents them in a formal letter of request. Implementing agencies as well as SCOs and officials at DOD’s six geographic combatant commands may provide input to the assistance request. In the pseudo-FMS process, SCOs and combatant commands consult with partner countries and take the lead in identifying partner country requirements and drafting the request, sometimes with input from the partner country. Agreement Development. During the agreement development phase, the implementing agency enters the letter of requestDefense Security Assistance Management System, a DSCA information system used by all implementing agencies to process letters of request and produce security assistance agreements. DSCA reviews the draft agreement and coordinates with the State Department before sending any congressional notifications that, for the traditional FMS process, may be required based on the dollar value or sensitivity of the potential sale but for pseudo-FMS are required for all programs. When approvals are in place, DSCA conducts a final quality assurance review and State performs a final review. In traditional FMS, DSCA authorizes the implementing agency to send the agreement to the partner country for acceptance; in the pseudo-FMS process, the implementing agency accepts the agreement on behalf of the combatant command. Acquisition. During the acquisition phase, implementing agencies requisition from existing supply or procure equipment and services using the same procedures they use to supply the U.S. military. The process is the same for both FMS and pseudo-FMS. Case managers at implementing agencies monitor acquisitions and enter status information into their data systems. Unlike the single information system used to develop agreements, the information systems used in the acquisition phase are not common across implementing agencies. However, DSCA has created a web-based overlay, the Security Cooperation Information Portal, which imports some of the information available in implementing agency data systems and is accessible over the Internet by security cooperation and partner country officials. Delivery. In the traditional FMS process, the partner country takes custody of materiel in the United States and is responsible for arranging delivery. The partner country may pay to use the U.S. military transportation system, but often uses its own freight forwarder—an authorized agent responsible for managing shipment to the final destination. If shipments are incomplete or otherwise deficient, the partner country may file a supply discrepancy report to seek redress. All BPC program shipments use the U.S. military transportation system or other U.S. government-procured transportation, with the SCO responsible for providing the delivery address, ensuring foreign customs requirements can be met, jointly checking shipments for completeness with the partner country, and preparing any needed supply discrepancy reports. Implementing agencies are responsible for conducting BPC deliveries and confirming that SCOs are ready to receive a planned delivery. For both FMS and pseudo-FMS processes, DOD uses the Enhanced Freight Tracking System (EFTS), a secure web-based application accessible within the Security Cooperation Information Portal designed to provide visibility of the security assistance distribution system. Case Closure. An FMS case is a candidate for closure when all materiel has been delivered, all ordered services have been performed, no new orders exist or are forthcoming, and the partner has not requested the case be kept open. At case closure, any remaining case funds may be made available to the country for further use. Pseudo-FMS cases may be submitted for closure as soon as supply and services are complete. DOD has undertaken internal improvement efforts designed to address challenges in implementing security cooperation and security assistance programs and improving timeliness of U.S. efforts. DSCA has also undertaken improvements recommended by its internal improvement program, begun in 2008, which has reviewed DSCA and implementing agency processes.initiated a comprehensive review of DOD’s internal processes. The results of the task force review led to recommendations focusing on areas In fiscal year 2010, the Secretary of Defense for improvement including: identification of partner requirements; acquisition and transportation; and training, education, and workforce development. DOD and DSCA have initiated a variety of efforts to implement the recommendations, and a follow-up task force report describes the status of action on the recommendations. In focus groups we conducted in 2012 at all six combatant commands and interviews with the officials at SCOs in 17 countries, security cooperation officials reported three types of challenges: (1) optimizing training and workforce structure, (2) defining partner country requirements, and (3) obtaining information on the acquisition and delivery status of assistance agreements. DSCA has undertaken reforms to address challenges associated with (1) training and workforce structure, (2) defining partner country requirements, and (3) obtaining information on the acquisition and delivery status of assistance agreements.addressing the first two challenges in the short term, reforms to address information system gaps are more long-term focused and are expected to take years to complete. Security cooperation officials reported that the existing training and workforce structure presented a challenge to successfully implementing security assistance. Specifically, focus groups at four of the six combatant commands indicated that training or staffing of SCOs was insufficient, limiting SCO effectiveness as they develop assistance requests, build relationships in-country, and track assistance agreements through to delivery. These focus group participants and officials at the SCOs and military departments reported that they felt a number of changes were needed, such as including more training on newer security cooperation authorities, providing additional refresher courses, and ensuring that security cooperation officers meet with their military department points of contact as part of their predeployment training for their SCO assignments. In addition, according to focus groups and interviews we conducted with SCOs, SCOs were insufficiently staffed or rotations in the field were not long enough. For example, some SCOs reported having only one security cooperation officer, and rotations sometimes lasted only 1 year, which was often less than the cycle time to develop and execute a security assistance agreement. Focus group participants said a lack of institutional memory in these SCOs created challenges for new officers who must assume responsibility for ongoing security cooperation efforts. DSCA has initiated a number of reforms designed to address training and workforce structure challenges previously identified by DOD and raised again during our focus groups and interviews. DOD recognized the need for improved training and workforce management as early as 2009, when the Deputy Secretary of Defense included efforts to improve security cooperation training in his top 10 Office of Management and Budget high- priority performance goals for 2010 and 2011. DSCA is developing several courses to address reported gaps in knowledge and to increase the percentage of the security cooperation workforce that receives training. For example, the Deputy Secretary of Defense declared in 2009 that DSCA must plan to educate 95 percent of the security cooperation workforce by the end of fiscal year 2011. As of September 2012, DSCA has consistently reported that this goal has been met or exceeded since it was first achieved in June 2011. DSCA and the Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management are currently identifying key positions in the security cooperation community and developing improved procedures to help ensure the selection of well-qualified candidates for those positions. In addition to monitoring the percentage of people trained, DOD has reforms underway to address concerns about the content of the training for, and the staffing of, security cooperation positions. In 2011, DOD’s Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management began expanding a required course for DOD personnel responsible for security assistance and security cooperation management in overseas positions such as at SCOs, combatant commands, and Defense Attaché Offices.