in effect
Executive Order 14383, signed February 6, 2026, directs the federal government to treat U.S. arms sales to foreign countries as an active tool of foreign policy and economic strategy rather than simply a transaction. It orders the creation of a formal “America First Arms Transfer Strategy” and establishes new coordination structures and timelines across the Departments of War, State, and Commerce to carry it out.
Within 30 days, a new interagency task force called the Promoting American Military Sales Task Force must be created to oversee and coordinate arms transfer activity. Within 60 days, agencies must produce an industry engagement plan and begin reviewing the Third-Party Transfer process (the rules governing when buyer countries can re-transfer U.S. weapons to others). Within 90 days, clearer criteria for End Use Monitoring must be established, along with a coordination group to track whether recipient countries are complying with U.S. requirements. Within 120 days, a prioritized “sales catalog” of recommended platforms must be delivered to the President, and quarterly public performance metrics on arms sale processing must begin being published. The order also reassigns certain congressional notification responsibilities from the Secretary of State to the Secretary of War by amending a 2013 executive order.
U.S. defense manufacturers and non-traditional defense companies stand to benefit from a more actively promoted export market, as the strategy explicitly aims to use foreign purchases to grow domestic industrial capacity. Foreign governments that buy or seek to buy U.S. military equipment will face a more strategically selective approval process, with priority given to partners that have invested in their own defense or hold geographic or operational significance to U.S. plans. Congress is also affected in a procedural sense, as the order shifts which executive official is responsible for certain required notifications about proposed arms transfers.