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Happy Friday!
In the news this week:
US grants $920M loan to Romania to buy US-made weapons
- The US State Department has announced a new $920 million Foreign Military Financing (FMF) loan to Romania, in order to help the NATO ally procure US-made Abrams tanks and ammunition.
Congress passes a Continuing Resolution through 20 Dec 2024.
- Lawmakers agreed on a bare-bones CR with few “anomalies,” or additional funds needed to tackle near-term budget concerns.
DAU authors interview Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. Highlights below.
- "I want to structure programs to get meaningful military capability in the hands of our operators as quickly as possible. I don’t like doing experiments for the sake of doing experiments or prototyping for the sake of doing prototyping."
- "I’ve watched us over the years [we] tend to pile up activity on one side of the valley of death without giving enough thought to how we’re going to get across the valley and very importantly not putting enough resources on the other side of the valley."
- "You need to plan any new product development, not just for the development side or the technology side, but also for the production side, the fielding side, the logistical support side, the full operational suite of things, and even retirement."
- "We need our leaders for new product development to have deep, real understanding of technology and what it takes to advance those technologies to the next level, because we’re in a competition and our ability to manage that is going to be a determiner of whether we’re successful or not."
This Week's Top Story
US grants $920M loan to Romania to buy US-made weapons
Aaron Mehta, Breaking Defense
U.S. Army Soldiers of 1st Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, setup their M1 Abram Tanks in Romania in a 2017 file photo. (DVIDS)
WASHINGTON — The US State Department has announced a new $920 million Foreign Military Financing (FMF) loan to Romania, in order to help the NATO ally procure US-made Abrams tanks and ammunition.
With Wednesday’s announcement, Romania becomes the second nation to receive such a specialized loan version of FMF, which is a new tool the State Department first rolled out in September 2023, when Poland received a $2 billion loan. In July of this year, Poland received a second $2 billion loan under the program.
FMF dollars have to be spent on US-made weapons. But unlike traditional FMF dollars, which are appropriated by Congress and work as grants handed to nations to fund the purchases, these State-authorized loans come with interest that will have to be paid back to the US government. For the Romanian deal, Washington put up $60 million to cover fees and guarantee the loan.
“Romania is undertaking a major military modernization program, including purchases of U.S. defense equipment such as Abrams main battle tanks and coproduction of ammunition,” a statement from the State Department reads. “Romania is a leader in NATO, working closely with Allies to advance Black Sea security and providing critical assistance to Ukraine, including the transfer of a Patriot strategic air defense system and training Ukrainian F-16 pilots.”
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