WASHINGTON—Sales of U.S. military equipment to foreign governments rose 49 percent to $205.6 billion in the latest fiscal year, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday.
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.
General Dynamics Corp. makes the Abrams tank, Boeing makes the F-15 jet and Lockheed Martin Corp. makes the ships.
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….