White House Unveils ‘America First’ Arms Export Strategy

In Washington, policy language has a way of sounding procedural even when it signals a strategic turn. The White House’s February 6, 2026 executive order on an “America First Arms Transfer Strategy” is one of those documents: bureaucratic in form, but ambitious in intent.

At its core, the order reframes arms exports not simply as foreign-policy transactions, but as instruments of American industrial policy. The logic is direct: if allied nations are buying U.S. systems, those purchases should do more than sustain overseas partnerships—they should strengthen American production lines, reinforce domestic supply chains and sharpen the technological edge of the U.S. defense base.

The administration’s priorities are clear. Arms transfers are to be aligned with U.S. strategic objectives and tied to production capacity for systems deemed most relevant to national defense. The order also points to a broader economic ambition: using foreign demand to cultivate competition, encourage innovation and draw both traditional defense primes and newer entrants deeper into the defense marketplace.

But the strategy is not only about selling more. It is also about selling more selectively. Priority is directed toward partners that are investing seriously in their own defense, carry strategic weight in U.S. planning, and contribute meaningfully to U.S. economic and security interests. In other words, alignment is no longer rhetorical, it is becoming a screening criterion.Implementation timelines are tight.

Within roughly two to four months, agencies are instructed to identify priority systems for allied purchase, expand advocacy for U.S. defense products, and map Foreign Military Sales (US FMS) and direct commercial opportunities that meet the order’s strategic tests. There is also a requirement for a coordinated industry engagement plan, signaling that government and industry execution will be expected to move in tandem.

Just as notable is the order’s operational emphasis: reducing process friction, accelerating review mechanisms and improving coordination through a new “Promoting American Military Sales Task Force.” The message is that speed now matters almost as much as volume.

Taken together, the executive order marks a shift from a transactional view of defense exports toward a more integrated one, where diplomacy, industrial resilience and alliance management are treated as parts of the same system.For allies, this could mean clearer opportunities but also tighter strategic expectations.For U.S. industry, it suggests that the next phase of arms transfer policy will reward not only capability, but alignment with a broader national project: security through production and production through defense industrial export strategy.