U.S. Navy secretary decries "torturous" arms sales approval process
By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus called on Thursday for continued efforts to accelerate what he described as a slow and "torturous" approval process for military sales to foreign customers.
Mabus said foreign military sales helped ensure continued production of U.S. weapons systems, such as the Boeing Co F/A-18E/F fighter jet, and also helped the U.S. military and its allies work seamlessly in joint military operations.
Mabus declined to comment about the timing for potential approval of a $3 billion sale of 28 Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jets to Kuwait, a deal that was expected last year but which has become mired in the U.S. arms sales approval process.
"The long torturous process you've got to go through to do any international sale ... it's a very frustrating process for all parties involved, and it speaks to the need to do something about the whole process," he said.
Mabus said he did not believe there had been any particular slowdown on the Kuwait order, but viewed the delays as symptomatic of a larger problem that he said had been in place since he first took office in 2009.
He said there were sporadic efforts to streamline the process, but none had been "particularly successful so far."
"I anticipate and hope that those efforts will continue, an that they will bear fruit," he said. "This has been a concern as long as I've been in this job."
Boeing is pressing the Obama administration to approve the Kuwait order and a separate Qatari order for F-15 fighter jets that has also been held up.
Boeing needs to finalize the Kuwait order to continue production of its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in St. Louis beyond mid-2018 and to ensure continued work at the factory until future Navy orders are received.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the Navy in a memo last month to order Super Hornets in fiscal 2018, leaving a potential production gap in fiscal 2017.
Boeing could potentially self-fund work on the Kuwait jets, or future Navy orders, for some time to bridge the gap, given the prospect that those orders will finalized at a later date, according to sources familiar with the situation.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Frances Kerry)
