Arms Sales
As the top firearms exporter, the United States faces significant challenges in trying to prevent the diversion or misuse of U.S. firearms around the world. In FY 2017, the State Department approved over $2.6 billion worth of firearms to over 100 countries. In many of these countries, including the Philippines, Honduras, UAE, there is a serious risk that U.S. firearms could be used to commit human rights violations against civilians and fuel conflict.
Notifications to Congress for U.S. commercial firearms exports reached $662 million in 2017.
As the United States approaches the 15th anniversary of its invasion of Iraq and continues to provide significant levels of aid to the security forces, this timeline shows some of the key events that shaped the U.S.-Iraqi security aid relationship during this period.
A report released today by the Security Assistance Monitor program of the Center for International Policy documents over $80 billion in U.S. arms sales notifications to Congress during the Trump Administration’s first year in office. The Trump Administration total of $82.2 billion for 2017 slightly exceeded the Obama Administration’s total of $76.5 billion for 2016, and was more than $20 billion less than the peak year of the Obama Administration’s major arms sales offers in 2010.
U.S. arms sales notifications under the Trump administration total over $48B.