Behind the scenes of foreign military sales: AFSAC helps international partners overcome airpower supply shortages

  • Published
  • By Jonathan Tharp
  • Air Force Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate

The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Air Force Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate brings good news to international partners involved in various foreign military sales aircraft programs.

Recently, AFSAC worked with a key international partner nation to clear more than a dozen Not Mission Capable Supply cases which inhibited the foreign partner’s aircraft from performing identified missions. When an NMCS code appears for a country’s weapon system, the weapon system is not capable of performing its assigned missions due to lack of critical parts.

Typically, it can take a year to clear a single NMCS code. In just nine days, AFSAC cleared 13 different NMCS codes to help pave the way for the partner’s aircraft to become mission capable again.

“It was an amazing team effort,” explained Tracy Hussong, a supply technician in the Central FMS Division of AFSAC. “My teammates and I collaborated with the supply flight, military departments and foreign liaison officer to clearly identify the critical supply issues, prioritize them appropriately in our systems, and communicate the necessary plan of actions for Source of Supply.”

Hussong was recently recognized for an AFLCMC 2021 civilian quarterly award. Her contributions to help a key international partner overcome supply shortages was one of the outstanding achievements that made her the ideal candidate for the award.

This success story with Hussong and her team is just one example of the many different ways AFSAC helps international partners keep their weapon system capabilities operational. Nearly a couple dozen countries have sent foreign nationals to work in AFSAC as foreign liaison officers. FLOs perform side-by-side with AFSAC personnel to manage logistics and long-term sustainment of their country’s weapon systems.

AFSAC logistics and supply personnel process more than 115,000 requisitions each year valued at nearly $1 billion — all in support of worldwide U.S. partner nations.

AFSAC developed a robust website known as AFSAC Online that provides a gateway to a variety of tools and programs managed by AFSAC staff and designed to support our partners. Visit the site to learn more about how AFSAC supports worldwide partnerships with 116 countries.

For more info related to AFSAC and FMS, visit the public AFSAC web channel.