Pentagon’s foreign military sales director to retire

The head of the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), the agency in charge of weapons sales to other countries, will retire in July.

Vice Adm. Joseph Rixey, the DSCA director since September 2013, will retire this summer, Pentagon spokesman Cdr. Patrick Evans confirmed to The Hill. Rixey’s replacement has yet to be announced.

As DSCA head, Rixey oversaw a U.S. foreign military sales high of $47 billion in 2015 and attempted to modernize the sales process through better workforce training.

{mosads}Rixey was originally set to retire in September 2016, after three years with the agency, but was asked to stay on into 2017 to help reform the cumbersome foreign military sales process.

The agency, along with the State Department, is working through more than 10,000 potential deals with more than 150 countries. An average of 140 new requests come in each month, and Rixey has likened the effort to “eating an elephant.”

A former P-3 Orion pilot, Rixey previously oversaw the Navy’s international programs office.

Defense News was the first to report Rixey’s retirement.