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Trump has long chafed against congressional review of

weapons

sales

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Order could boost sales for big defense contractors

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Trump also ordered general review of Pentagon procurement

(New throughout with comments and details)

By Patricia Zengerle and Andrea Shalal

April 9 (Reuters) -

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on

Wednesday for a review of rules governing exports of military

equipment, as he seeks to make it easier for U.S. defense firms

to sell their products abroad.

"We're unable to provide weapons systems in a reliable,

effective way to key allies of ours, and the key driver of that

is inefficiencies and inconsistencies with the process by which

we approve foreign military sales," White House aide Will Scharf

said at the signing ceremony in the Oval Office.

"So this executive order is going to direct your

Department of Defense, Department of State, other relevant

departments and agencies, to rework our system of foreign

defense sales to ensure that we can provide equipment creating

American jobs and providing obviously revenue to American

defense manufacturers, but provide key military equipment to our

key allies in a reliable, effective way," he said.

Reuters reported on April 1 that

Trump was planning

an order that would ease rules governing exports of

military equipment, similar to legislation proposed by Michael

Waltz, his national security adviser, last year when he was a

Republican member of the House of Representatives.

The order could increase sales for big U.S. defense

contractors like Lockheed Martin ( LMT ), RTX and Boeing ( BA )

.

Currently, the U.S. Arms Export Control Act gives

Congress the right to review arms exports to other countries,

depending on how close an ally a country is and the size of the

planned sale.

During his first term, Trump often expressed frustration

with members of Congress delaying foreign arms sales over human

rights or other concerns.

In 2019, he infuriated many lawmakers, including some

fellow Republicans, by declaring a national emergency because of

tensions with Iran. That allowed him to sweep aside a

long-standing precedent for congressional review of major

weapons sales and complete the sale of over $8 billion worth of

weapons to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

At the time, members of Congress had been blocking sales

of military equipment to Saudi Arabia and the UAE for months,

angry about the civilian toll from their air campaign in Yemen,

as well as human rights abuses such as the murder of Saudi

journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate in Turkey.

Trump also signed an order on Wednesday launching a

general review of procurement programs at the Department of

Defense.

"With this executive order, we're going to be

modernizing the procurement structure the Department of Defense

uses to allow it to more quickly adapt to changing circumstances

around the world," Scharf said.

"And we're also going to be launching a review of

existing procurement programs to ensure that we're getting value

for the money, to ensure that we're getting the best possible

systems in the field," Scharf said.