Foreign weapon sales by the United States to its allies plunged to $33.6 billion in fiscal year 2016, down from the record-setting FY 2015 sales of $47.085 billion.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said it cleared $2.9 billion of Foreign Military Financing-funded cases; $5.0 billion in Building Partner Capacity-funded cases and $25.7 billion funded by partner nations.

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DSCA, a part of the Department of Defense (DoD), provides financial and technical assistance; transfer of defense materiel; training and services to allies, and promotes military-to-military contacts.

Among sales cleared in fiscal 2016 were $785 million from the UAE for munitions such as the GBU-10 Paveway II laser-guided bombs announced in July; $1.2 billion from Australia for AIM-120D advanced medium range air-to-air missiles and $1.15 billion from Saudi Arabia for M1A2S Abrams tanks and M88Al/A2 recovery vehicles.

The drop from the 2015 total was predicted last month by DSCA head Vice Adm. Joseph Rixey, who said the total overall figure isn't a barometer his agency uses to judge its success.

"We don't look at sales like a benchmark we're trying to capture. It's not a number we're trying to go for," he said.

"Sales is really a fundamental result of foreign policy. We just have to understand what kind of workforce we're going to need to prosecute those sales.

"It's nothing more than a tool for us to anticipate what we're going to anticipate and work with."

In fiscal 2015, DSCA had sales of $47.085 billion for fiscal year 2015. Sales under the government-to-government Foreign Military Sales Program totaled $35.359 billion. 

Sales executed using U.S. government appropriations under various security cooperation and security assistance authorities such as Foreign Military Financing and DoD programs totaled $11.726 billion.

During the year, demand for U.S. defense products and services remained strong, as the U.S. share of total global arms transfer agreements has increased over the last decade.

With a number of partner countries looking to modernize, the U.S. share of transfers to partners and allies in emerging defense markets in Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America continues to increase.

TagsDefense Security Cooperation Agency, DSCA, United States, department of defense, Vice Adm. Joseph Rixey