Source: Defense News
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s top weapons export official believes the US should do more to encourage allies to buy American equipment as a group, under the aegis of a pilot program launched to help NATO quickly acquire weapons.
While noting he doesn’t have direct say in any decision to expand the use of what is known as “lead nation procurement,” Vice Adm. Joseph Rixey, director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, said he would like to see the formula for buying American weapons expanded.
“I would like to expand it beyond — I don’t have a say obviously — but I could see it expanding beyond NATO once we prove it out with NATO,” Rixey said Sept. 7 at the annual Common Defense conference. “So this is something we are very much interested in.”
There have been two NATO programs under the aegis of lead nation procurement. The first was fairly small — coordination for a Baltic defense college with Latvia, Li…
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