United States Security Assistance Organizations - Responsibilities

Responsibilities

Typically, these responsibilities require an SAO to carry out the following tasks listed in the Department of Defense Manual, The Management of Security Assistance:

• Provide foreign governments with information they need to help them decide whether to buy U.S. defense articles and services. This information might concern the acquisition, use, and training needed to obtain these items
• Evaluate host countries' military capabilities, in order to process security assistance requests
• Acquire information concerning foreign governments' potential future defense acquisitions
• Help U.S. military departments (such as the Army or Navy) arrange security assistance for recipient countries
• Assist host governments in identifying, administering, and disposing of excess security assistance materiel
• Report on the use of defense articles and services granted as aid to the host country, as well as personnel trained by the United States
• Inform other Defense Department offices with security-assistance responsibilities of security assistance activities in host countries
• Perform secondary functions, such as advisory and training services and negotiation on non-security assistance military matters
• Perform command and administrative functions.

SAOs also coordinate or participate in activities not traditionally regarded as "security assistance," such as exercises and deployments, humanitarian civic assistance activities, exchanges, conferences and other military-to-military contact programs.

Section 515 (e) of the Foreign Assistance Act states that SAOs are to be under the direct supervision of the Ambassador to the country in which they are stationed. However, The Management of Security Assistance probably reflects reality more closely: "The Chief of the SAO is essentially responsible to three authorities: the Ambassador (who heads up the country team), the Commander of the Unified Command, and the Director, Defense Security Cooperation Agency."2

Funding for the portion of SAO salaries and operating costs used to manage security assistance comes from the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program and from administrative surcharges on Foreign Military Sales (FMS).