Cyprus incorporated into US defence agency’s Military sales programme

Cyprus has been authorised to buy military hardware directly from the United States government after joining three programmes run by the country’s department of defence on Wednesday night.

As of 3pm in Washington DC, (10pm in Nicosia), the Cyprus government has been incorporated into the US defence security cooperation agency’s foreign military sales (FMS) programme, its excess defence articles (EDA) programme, and will be allocated resources under the US’ ‘Title 10’ security assistance provisions.

It is the inclusion into the FMS programme which will allow the government to purchase military hardware directly from the US government, with the country previously having only been able to buy US military hardware from private companies.

The Cyprus Mail understands that being able to circumvent private companies will allow the government to buy weapons and other hardware at cheaper prices than before, given that the US government typically acquires its apparatus in bulk, and is thus able to sell it on for cheaper prices than what private companies would offer to a military of the National Guard’s size.

The US defence security cooperation agency described the FMS as “a fundamental tool of US foreign policy”.

It also explains that according to the laws regulating the programme, the US “may sell defence articles and services to foreign countries and international organisations when the president formally finds that to do so will strengthen the security of the US and promote world peace”.

Being incorporated into the FMS programme will allow for better maintenance of the hardware Cyprus will acquire as well as for national guardsmen to be better educated in how to best use the equipment at their disposal.

It will also allow for the National Guard to more frequently take part in joint exercises with the US armed forces.

Such a government-to-government agreement on the acquisition of military hardware is only the third of its kind of which Cyprus is a part, with the Cyprus government also having similar agreements with the governments of Israel and Serbia.

The EDA programme allows for “friendly foreign countries” to acquire military equipment from the US that the country has deemed “excess”, and, according to the US defence security cooperation agency is typically used to modernise the armed forces of the US’ international partners.

The items are typically offered by the US at a reduced price, depending on the condition of the equipment at the time of sale, with the Cyprus Mail understanding that on some occasions, the equipment is even offered free of charge.

Greece has already been incorporated into the EDA programme and made a total of 423 separate purchases between 2013 and 2023. Turkey, a fellow Nato member, made one purchase over the same period. Israel made 2,436.

The provision of ‘Title 10’ security assistance, so named after the law which oversees the US military, will be used for “capacity building”.

Wednesday night’s announcement is the latest step in Cyprus’ westward turn on all matters defence, with the National Guard having suffered from sanctions placed in Russia in the aftermath of the country’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Russia had previously been a leading supplier of military hardware to the National Guard, but Cyprus’ reorientation towards the west had already begun to have a detrimental impact on that infrastructure even before a blanket ban was placed on Russian military hardware exports in 2022.

As such those sanctions have left Cyprus’ existing defence systems short of spare parts and mean that they cannot be upgraded, meaning that new hardware is being sought from western countries instead.

A senior government source told Reuters last month that Cyprus is “turning to other countries of the European Union, as well as Israel” to upgrade its military hardware.

This includes the acquisition of French mistral surface-to-air missiles, which Cyprus will take on as part of the EU’s first ever financial support package for common defence procurement.

The missiles will be acquired as part of the European defence industry reinforcement through common procurement instrument (Edirpa), which has allocated a total of €300 million worth of funding to five separate defence projects.

The Cyprus Mail has been informed that hardware acquired by the Republic of Cyprus through Edirpa and through the US will be interoperable.