The State Department reports that US arms deals sold over $300 billion in weapons to foreign countries last year. The record-high sales include over $20 billion in arms paid for with US aid.
The State Department’s statement on 2024 arms sales explained that “the total value of transferred defense articles and services and security cooperation activities conducted under the Foreign Military Sales system was $117.9 billion.”
Compared to 2023, the State Department says last year’s totals represented an increase of 45.7%, adding, “This is the highest ever annual total of sales and assistance provided to our allies and partners.” According to the statement, $21 billion in the FMS was paid for with US aid.
In addition to the FMS, US arms deals brokered $200 billion in other transactions. “The total authorized value for privately contracted Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) authorizations for FY2024 was $200.8 billion,” the statement explained. “This represents a 27.5% increase, up from $157.5 billion in FY2023.”
Combined, the FMS and DCS sales total over $318 billion.
Most of the weapon sales went to US allies and partners in Europe, the Middle East or East Asia. In Europe, NATO countries continued to buy weapons at a rapid pace as they transferred older systems to Ukraine for the proxy war against Russia. China is the focus of American arm sales in East Asia as Washington prepares to fight a war with Beijing over Taiwan.
In the Middle East, Israel bought, often with US aid, billions in weapons from American arms deals. Tel Aviv is conducting what multiple international human rights organizations have identified as a genocide in Gaza. During the Biden administration, the State Department was flooded with hundreds of reports that American weapons were being used to kill civilians in Gaza.
The State Department asserted that the US arms transfers occurred in “accordance with the U.S. Conventional Arms Transfer Policy, and weighs political, social, human rights, civilian protection, economic, military, nonproliferation, technology security, and end use factors.”
However, the US military aid and arms sales to Israel violate multiple American laws as Israel is committing war crimes with US weapons, the IDF has blocked aid from reaching Gaza, and Tel Aviv has an undeclared nuclear weapons program.
