America-First Arms Transfer Strategy

On February 6, 2026, the president issued an executive order prioritizing American interests by using foreign purchases and capital to build American production and capacity. What key industrial capabilities would be most useful for the future force, and how can the US military leverage capabilities that may exist among allies and partners to help develop US-based industrial capabilities?

How can new acquisition models, increased investment in niche industrial capabilities by allies, or co-production opportunities help meet administration priorities while enhancing burden sharing and strengthening the alliance?

• Cahoon, Lt. Col. Troy Lee, "The Military Might of Manufacturing: How Manufacturing Massive Fleets of Factories, eVTOLs, Drones, Robots, Weapons, and Electrified Systems Will Re-Instate American Military Primacy," AWC PSP, 2021, 33 pgs. 
  • Addresses the query by identifying the most useful industrial capabilities for the future force: the mass manufacturing of highly automated factories, drones, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, robotics, and electrified systems. The paper argues that by aggressively building these advanced mass-production capacities domestically, the U.S. can produce high-tech weapons systems at a fraction of their current costs. Consequently, these cheaper, domestically produced weapon systems will become highly affordable for America’s allies, allowing them to purchase and field much larger fleets, which directly enhances international burden-sharing, strengthens the alliance, and supports U.S. industrial dominance.
• Church, Lt. Col. Marc L., "Congruent FMS and 10 USC 333 Strategy for USINDOPACOM," AWC RSS, 2024.
  • This paper addresses the arms transfer strategy by advocating for a highly integrated regional approach to Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to counter China. The author argues that while China possesses geographic advantages, the greatest asymmetric strength the U.S. holds is its network of willing partners. By actively listening to allied requirements and utilizing a congruent FMS and Building Partner Capacity (under 10 USC 333) strategy to equip and train regional partners, the U.S. can successfully reinforce allied sovereignty, enhance regional burden sharing, and impose multi-front dilemmas on Chinese operational planning.
• Conlon, Col. Jeannie E., "The Cobbled Road to Equipping US Allies: A Look at Rotary Wing Acquisition in the Indo-Pacific," AWC SSP, 2024.
  • This paper explores the strategic value of Foreign Military Sales (FMS) for equipping allies with complex weapon systems like helicopters, while identifying the bureaucratic barriers that currently delay these arms transfers. To meet U.S. priorities and strengthen alliances, the author suggests implementing new acquisition and political models, such as adjusting the congressional FMS notification dollar thresholds to account for inflation and leveraging the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF). By streamlining these FMS processes and creating specialized teams to address allied maintenance and parts challenges, the U.S. can rapidly improve partner capacity and achieve effective regional burden sharing.
• Dobre, Maj. Costinal-Viorel, "Integrated Deterrence: Department of the Air Force and NATO Space and Cyberspace Interoperability," AFGC thesis, 2025.
  • Examines how the U.S. can leverage allied capabilities and enhance burden-sharing by optimizing innovation cooperation with NATO partners in the highly technical space and cyberspace domains. To meet administration priorities and eliminate capability gaps, the paper strongly advocates for co-producing and investing in dual-use technologies, standardizing communication protocols, and streamlining information-sharing mechanisms across allied forces. By intentionally combining U.S. subject matter expertise with allied technological investments, the U.S. can ensure that the collective defense industrial base remains resilient, agile, and capable of dominating future conflicts.
• Hobson, Andrew W., "Fighting with Friends: The Impact of Alliances on Force Design," SAASS thesis, 2024.
  • This research examines how alliance structures fundamentally shape a state's operational force design and acquisition choices, specifically exploring the debate over procuring military capabilities from a domestic defense industrial base versus buying "off-the-shelf". The paper analyzes how allied states choose to adopt emerging technologies through "emulation, collaboration (jigsaw pieces and jointly owned capabilities), and disregarding (free riding)". By exploring how NATO membership and U.S. technology diffusion impart technological determinism onto medium powers, the study provides insight into how the U.S. can structure cooperative arms programs and jointly owned capabilities to enhance alliance cohesion and burden sharing.
• Hoettels, Lt. Col. Elizabeth Anne L., "Crystallizing Strategic Medical Success in the Arctic by Finding the Abominable Snowman," AWC SSP 2022.
  • Addresses how the US military can leverage capabilities that already exist among allies to develop domestic capacity and fulfill America-First administration priorities. Hoettels recommends that instead of funding redundant, ground-up development programs, the US should actively pursue the purchase and licensing of highly effective products and industrial capabilities that have already been researched and developed by international partners. By utilizing these foreign capabilities and co-production models, the US saves valuable research and development funding which can then be immediately reallocated toward building novel, US-based industrial capabilities, directly supporting the strategic guidance to reinvigorate and modernize global alliances.
• Krogh, Maj. Kyle J., "Conflict Escalation via Unmanned Aerial Systems in a Hybrid Warfare Context," AF Fellows (Argonne National Lab), 2020.
  • Answers the question by identifying unmanned aerial systems (UAS) as a key industrial capability and explaining how streamlined arms transfers enhance burden sharing. Krogh argues that to meet the needs of the National Defense Strategy, the US must reduce bureaucratic barriers to arms distribution—specifically outdated Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) restrictions that artificially limit U.S. sales of unmanned systems. By increasing the export of American UAS, the US can actively shift partner nations away from purchasing Chinese technology, thereby capturing foreign capital to bolster U.S. production lines while simultaneously increasing allied capacity to shoulder the burden of hybrid warfare.
• McGehee, Clark C., "The Arsenal of Democracy as a Case Study for Industrial Mobilization: Relevance and Implications for the Early 21st Century," SAASS thesis, 2024.
  • By analyzing the U.S. industrial mobilization during World War II, this paper extracts lessons for modernizing contemporary defense industrial policy and capacity. In alignment with the administration's priority to use foreign purchases to build American production, the author argues for targeted investments to enhance manufacturing capabilities in defense-adjacent industries. Crucially, the paper recommends that Congress can fund these massive domestic capacity investments by "replenishing US stockpiles and selling equipment to allies and partners," thereby creating a direct link between foreign military sales and the revitalization of the American industrial base.
• McGuire, Lt. Col. Daniel Patrick, "Globalization is Dying and So Is the People's Republic of China: Why the US Industrial Base Will Shape the New World Order in an Age of Neoclassical Realism," AWC SSP, 2025.
  • This paper directly addresses the concept of leveraging allied capabilities by proposing the development of an "International Defense Industrial Base" (IDIB) supported by "Industrial Diplomacy". The author argues that in a deglobalizing world, the U.S. must prioritize international defense production relationships with like-minded allies, utilizing Security of Supply Arrangements (SOSAs) to facilitate co-development, co-production, and co-sustainment. By integrating allied manufacturing strengths and establishing regional sustainment centers, the U.S. can build critical international redundancies that offset domestic shortfalls, ultimately fortifying the U.S. industrial base while ensuring equitable burden sharing under a grand strategy the author terms "Neoclassical Industrial Realism."
• Mittelmark, Maj. Carey D., "The Changing Balance of Military Forces in Asia: US Defense Policy Options in the South China Sea," AF Fellows (SAIS), 2014.
  • Identifies ballistic missile defense (BMD) and maritime surveillance assets as key industrial capabilities that should be aggressively leveraged through arms transfers to strengthen alliances. Mittelmark recommends the US utilize Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and Global Train and Equip programs to use allied purchases to rapidly build partner capacity in contested regions like the South China Sea. By prioritizing the export of advanced systems—such as PAC-3 and THAAD batteries to Japan, South Korea, and Australia—the US uses foreign capital to implement a cohesive, shared regional defense architecture that ultimately decreases allied dependency on direct U.S. intervention while continuously strengthening the domestic manufacturing base.
• Moss, Tyler M., "Guns, Butter and Narratives: The Real Version of Rock, Paper, Scissors," SAASS thesis, 2025, 84 pgs. 
  • This study focuses on expanding U.S. production capabilities by deliberately integrating allies and partners into the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) through "friend-shoring". The author provides a data-driven framework that evaluates foreign nations across nine variables—including supply chain resiliency, industrial capabilities, and workforce skills—to identify the top candidates for U.S. DIB integration. The paper asserts that creating a "web-like production network" with these selected nations allows the U.S. to offset the high costs of military innovation, achieve economies of scale, and build a layered, globally distributed deterrence posture capable of sustaining a protracted conflict with a peer adversary.
• Reinhardt, Maj. Daniel P. "There Is No I in Warfare: The Air Force Must Continue to Invest Effort and Resources towards Improving Integration with Allies and Partners," AFGC thesis, 2022.
  • Answers how the US military can use new acquisition models and co-production opportunities to enhance burden sharing and strengthen the alliance. Reinhardt notes that to successfully deter near-peer adversaries and enable coalitions with enhanced capabilities, the Department of Defense must aggressively reduce institutional barriers that currently inhibit "collective research and development" and the "export of key capabilities". By upgrading technology release processes, expanding release authorizations, and removing administrative hurdles, the US can facilitate mutual capability development and information exchange, ensuring that allied investments directly connect international strategies into a fully interoperable multinational fighting force.
• Rosario, LTC Jorge A,, "US Army Arctic Dominance: A Long Way Away," AWC SSP, 2022.
  • Explores how arms transfers and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) act as critical components of national strategy to meet administration priorities and alliance strength. Rosario highlights that the US Army Security Assistance Command alone manages over $200 billion in FMS cases across 150 nations, demonstrating how foreign purchases inject massive capital directly into the American defense industrial base. The paper asserts that leveraging this economic statecraft through targeted arms transfers bolsters allies' military capabilities and ensures their technological interoperability, which is absolutely required to help the U.S. safely shoulder the heavy operational burden of coalition multi-domain operations against competitors like Russia and China.
• Typolt, Lt. Col. Ryan, "Dueling Narratives: China's Century of Humiliation versus American Engagement in the Pacific," AWC SSP, 2021.
  • Explores how the administration can meet its priorities by analyzing the U.S. Conventional Arms Transfer policy, which explicitly aims to promote United States arms sales to build partner capacity and accelerate the transformation of partner military capabilities. This arms transfer strategy is designed to deepen interoperability and create a combat-credible forward presence to deter adversarial aggression alongside allies. However, the paper cautions that while leveraging foreign purchases is vital for defense, a singular focus on arms sales and military capacity is insufficient; the U.S. must embed these transactions within a broader whole-of-government approach that leverages diplomatic and economic partnerships to truly strengthen alliances and counter competitor narratives.
• Varga, Lt. Col. Jennifer L., "Breaking the Cycle: Delivering More Stable and Predictive Funding for Rapid Acquisitions," AWC SSP, 2019.
  • The paper highlights that by engaging in co-sponsorship techniques and shared investments with these global partners, the DoD can distribute program risks and significantly lower long-term sustainment costs. This collaborative acquisition approach provides a practical model for how increased investment in niche industrial capabilities by allies can overcome bureaucratic inertia, allowing the U.S. to rapidly field leap-ahead technologies while simultaneously strengthening the alliance's shared industrial base.
• Wetzel, Lt. Col. Tyson et al, "Seizing the Advantage: A Vision for the Next US National Defense Strategy," AF Fellows (Atlantic Council), 2021.
  • Answers the question by proposing that the U.S. military coordinate directly with allied and partner defense industrial bases to develop complementary military and dual-use capabilities, rather than compelling allies to redundantly buy or develop the exact same systems. To build domestic production capacity and bolster supply security, the authors recommend adapting existing contracts to incorporate greater domestic stockpiling and licensing as a hedge against disruptions, while extending security-of-supply arrangements to partner nations. Furthermore, the paper identifies key industrial capabilities for the future force—such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, autonomous combat systems, and hypersonic weapons—and argues that the U.S. must expand foreign direct investment and leverage the collective innovation base to maintain technological superiority and enhance burden sharing.