How were the foreign partner needs identified? For any BPC program, the process involves several steps and multiple players. Most BPC program and case planning occurs annually in conjunction with U.S. geographic combatant command (GCC) security cooperation planning. Regional and country-focused working groups formulate plans based on long-term goals for their regions. However, international crises, targeted appropriations, and other events may give rise to planning outside the regular process.

Section 1206 has its own planning cycle. The requirements for building a specific capacity in a partner country are determined by the country team, which generally consists of the Security Cooperation Organization (SCO) and principal officers within the U.S. Embassy of the recipient country. The GCC and regional policy offices within DoD and DoS also play active roles.

The local knowledge of specialist civilian and military personnel within the embassy’s SCO and the regional GCC is applied to identify and generate requirements, which the GCC then prioritizes and sends to the OSD policy regional offices for review. Once the review is complete, DoD presents the plan to the DoS for concurrent approval. If the green light is given, DoD submits the notification to Congress. Once the congressional notification process is complete, DSCA is tasked with making the plan work.

“We do the end-to-end management of DoD articles and services,” McGaughey said. “In an FMS transaction, the partner nation uses its own funds to arrange transportation and delivery. Transportation is the country’s responsibility. In BPC programs, DSCA stewards [the defense article or service] all the way to the user, ensuring that it arrives, it is accounted for, and it is employed for its intended purpose. That’s a big difference.”

As such, it takes a total team effort to deliver this total package. DSCA and other government agencies jointly execute efforts approved after detailed planning. Execution includes transporting the articles or training personnel and equipment to the partner nation. Typically, the regional GCC will consolidate the relevant materiel in the United States before shipment to the partner. Occasionally, as with some urgent 1206 cases, items may be transported via a Special Assignment Airlift Mission (SAAM) or other premium transportation.

“The country teams not only have to identify a need, they have to realistically determine whether the partner country has individuals who can successfully receive training, or a unit or location that can potentially support equipment that might be sent. You can’t send boats or trucks if they don’t have trained crews, truck drivers, or the necessary maintenance personnel.”

The articles and trainers are received in the partner nation by the SCO, who makes sure that everything requested and approved is present and ready to transfer to the partner nation. Since the goal is to provide the partner nation with a “capability” – not just a piece of equipment or training – follow-on support by DSCA and the relevant country team is essential.

During the planning process, the local SCO briefs the partner nation on specific program objectives and the partner’s expected role in the process. It is critical that the partner nation acknowledge its ability and responsibility to support and sustain the articles and services under consideration after delivery. “We rely on the information provided by the country team and GCC to make an assessment of the likely return-on-investment which a particular BPC program may yield,” McGaughey said. “It’s up to the SCO to determine that the partner country understands what we’d like to accomplish and that their personnel commit funding to sustain the equipment.

“The country teams not only have to identify a need, they have to realistically determine whether the partner country has individuals who can successfully receive training, or a unit or location that can potentially support equipment that might be sent. You can’t send boats or trucks if they don’t have trained crews, truck drivers, or the necessary maintenance personnel. There also has to be a buy-in from the partner country even though we’re purchasing the equipment or training for them. Sometimes a country may not have the national funding to sustain the equipment or they may not be able to reach the minimum required English comprehension level needed to attend training. These minimal capacity deficiencies can occasionally cause programs to be delayed.”

Once the benefiting partner is ready and funding has been approved, DSCA gets the wheels moving, and if the capability is scheduled to be delivered via the Global Train and Equip program, the wheels move quickly. “We’re closely monitoring virtually every aspect of the obligation process with the military services to get these items on contract,” McGaughey said. “The contracting officers understand the urgency to move these [1206] requirements to the top of their priority pile. There is a tremendous sense of urgency to implement these contracts very rapidly, which usually allows us to deliver the first articles within months.”

Given the time-sensitive nature of the 1206 program and funding windows within which it is executed, the country teams and DSCA must develop a total package from the beginning. Planners for 1206 programs must consider the effective sustainability of the capability which the United States is seeking to provide. No matter how well an initial spares or support package is developed, keeping equipment operational will require additional spares, training, consumables, and possibly contractor logistics support that exceed annual BPC program funding.

Accordingly, Section 1206 cases get some latitude through what Congress calls “cross fiscal year authority.” Formal as the term sounds, it simply means that there is a time-limited exception to the rule requiring that appropriated funds be used only for goods and services during the period of availability. For 1206 cases, the funding may be used for programs that end in the subsequent fiscal year.