Excess Defense Articles: DOD Needs to Better Assess the Program , December 16 , 2025
Excess Defense Articles: DOD Needs to Better Assess the Program , December 16 , 2025
From the report: "The Excess Defense Articles (EDA) program has a phased approval process. The Department of Defense (DOD) reviews foreign partners’ EDA requests and coordinates with the Departments of Commerce and State. During the process, agency officials consider the proposed transfer’s effect on industry, foreign partner resources, and security cooperation priorities, among other factors.
DOD monitors EDA after transfer under its end-use monitoring program. Nearly all EDA are subject to the program’s routine end-use monitoring, which requires DOD officials to observe an item or group of items for each foreign partner at least quarterly. GAO found that DOD generally conducted the quarterly routine checks as required for selected foreign partners. However, DOD does not systematically track key information on EDA after transfer to foreign partners. Specifically, DOD’s end-use monitoring database does not identify items as EDA or have disposition data (i.e., an item’s status, such as demilitarized or expended in combat versus in active use) for routine items. Systematically tracking EDA would provide DOD better information on these items. Such information would allow DOD to make better-informed recommendations on future EDA transfers, because these are based in part on foreign partner abilities to support items."
Authors - Government Accountability Office (GAO)Related Resources
