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WHAT: The U.S. Army Program Executive Office (PEO) Enterprise and several stakeholders have successfully deployed an initial capability of the Foreign Military Sales – Army Case Execution System (FMS-ACES). Described in the Army's announcement as a "modernized solution for managing FMS cases within the security community," FMS-ACES successfully completed a minimum viable capability release in September 2025.
FMS-ACES is a cloud-based, low-code software solution within the PEO-Enterprise's Software Acquisition Pathway (SWP). The software is the result of a partnership between the Army PEO and U.S. Army Security Assistance Command (USASAC) to develop a modernized FMS case management program based on end-user needs and mandated requirements. The purpose of FMS-ACES is to replace the Army's current Common Business-Oriented Language (COBOL) based case management system with an Agile software that will provide FMS case officers from the USASAC with "full enterprise visibility of the case lifecycle, ensuring access to information that is timely, accurate, traceable and auditable."
According to the Army, FMS-ACES will provide case officers the ability to perform all case implementation, execution, supply discrepancy reporting and closure activities from the cloud-based application. Described as a "leap forward in Army case execution modernization," the Army highlights two aspects of FMS-ACES: (1) improving product tracking accuracy and (2) providing greater transparency and continuous feedback capability to the Army Security Assistance Enterprise.
WHEN: The official FMS-ACES application will be released on November 1, 2025.
WHAT IT MEANS FOR INDUSTRY: As we began tracking in early 2023, faced with competition concerns from China and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. Government, particularly the Department of Defense (DoD), has been focused on modernizing the FMS system to increase efficiency and transparency. Industry has been involved in this modernization process, with the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), and Professional Services Council (PSC) releasing reports to DoD and the U.S. Department of State on improving the FMS process. DoD subsequently released a list of recommendations to strengthen the FMS program based on six key FMS pressure points identified by DoD's Tiger Team. DoD's list was followed by a list of recommendations to improve the FMS process from the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Technical, Industrial, and Governmental Engagement for Readiness (TIGER) Task Force. Our discussion of the reports from industry can be found here and here, of DoD's recommendations can be found here, of the House Foreign Affairs Committee's recommendations can be found here, and of President Trump's Executive Order can be found here.
By developing and successfully completing a minimum viable capability release of FMS-ACES, the Army has built upon the recommendations and reports mentioned above and taken a key step in modernizing the FMS program. While FMS-ACES has only completed a minimum viable capability release, if the application is successful upon full release later this year, we should expect to see other agencies roll out similar applications to modernize FMS case management using cloud-based software and Agile methodologies.
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