U.S. arms exports up 11% in fiscal 2022, official says

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of U.S. military equipment to foreign governments rose 10.8% to $153.1 billion in the latest fiscal year, a U.S. State Department official said on Wednesday.

The total value of approved sales in fiscal 2022 - which ended Sept. 30 - was $153.1 billion, Jessica Lewis, the assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs told a room full of foreign military attaches and ambassadors at Meridian House, a nonprofit diplomacy center in Washington.

Sales approved in the year included $13.9 billion worth of F-15ID fighter jets to Indonesia, $6.9 billion worth of Multi-Mission Surface Combatant ships to Greece, and $6 billion worth of M1A2 Abrams tanks to Poland.

Sales of U.S. military equipment in the prior fiscal year totaled $138 billion.

There are two major ways foreign governments purchase arms from U.S. companies: direct commercial sales negotiated between a government and a company, and foreign military sales in which a foreign government typically contacts a Defense Department official at the U.S. embassy in its capital. Both require U.S. government approval.

(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

By Mike Stone