EconDefense
INT-17 / Security cooperation, assistance and education

Pay for combined training and exercises and partner incremental expenses

Train U.S. forces with friendly military or similar-function national security forces and pay permitted exercise, partner and small-construction costs; special-operations training has a separate path.

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At a glance

Possible toolINT-17 · Other statutory tools
Legal basis10 U.S.C. § 321

Authority holder: Military Department Secretary or combatant commander for §321 payments; designated combatant commanders for §322, within SecDef-approved procedures.

Other statutory tools

Mechanism tags describe the source text; they do not expand the authority.

Availability and verification

Existing statutory pathway; conditional on the listed findings, approvals, eligible purpose and actual available funds. Not an obligation-ready certification.

Requirements and limits

Eligibility & prerequisites

  • Primary purpose is training U.S. forces (SOF for §322).
  • Partner incremental-expense eligibility; developing-country restrictions/exception under §321 regulations.
  • Required fiscal controls and reports.

Limits & exclusions

  • Not substitute for §333 partner-capacity assistance where principal purpose differs.
  • FY26 law removed general-purpose-force military-only restriction but retained comparable-function national-security-force qualification.

Funding conditions

  • §321 allows covered activities spanning into next fiscal year; check actual funds.
  • Partner incremental expenses do not become general salary/budget support.

Read the funding and execution guide

Who contributes what

Need & planning

  • Geographic or functional CCMD security-cooperation planners
    Office profile
  • Embassy SCO and Chief of Mission country team

Resources

Approval

  • Secretary of Defense prior approval under prescribed regulations
    Office profile
  • Service Secretary or combatant commander statutory payment authority

Execution

  • Service units and exercise contracting/support offices
  • USSOCOM/theater special operations commands for §322
    Office profile

Partners & review

  • Foreign partner government
  • Department of State
  • Export-control/foreign-disclosure officials

Office links are editorial matches to the original role text, not verified delegations. Composite labels and unmatched actors are preserved.

Coordination pathway

Exercise sponsor → CCMD/Service counsel and comptroller → identify §321 vs322 purpose/recipient → SecDef approval → authorized payments and reporting.

Actor and execution-role sources

What this research establishes

Legal powerSource and conditions recorded
EligibilityProject-specific check needed
Available fundsBalances not verified
DelegationValid signature authority must be checked
ExecutionOffice capacity and approvals must be checked

Confidence: High on express statutory capability; execution/delegation and currently available resources require program-specific confirmation.

Currentness: GovInfo2024 §§321-322 read; Pub. L.119-60 §1201 directly applied: revised eligible forces and payment categories; quarterly retrospective report replaces prospective schedule.

Research target: October 2, 2026. A record-specific last-review date is not supplied. Publication date is not legal-currentness certification.