provide the US funds through foreign military sales

[navi tasan]

The countries who send pilots as part of this program provide the US funds through foreign military sales to build the facilities, the official added, and the military hires community labor around the bases to build them out.

Source:

US announces it will allow Qatar to build an Air Force facility in Idaho

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced on Friday that the US will allow Qatar to build an Air Force facility at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, which will host Qatari F-15 fighter jets and pilots who will train alongside US troops.

www.yahoo.com

I think the countries in question purchase military equipment from the US. If that is indeed the case, wouldn't 'military purchases' (instead of 'foreign military sales') be correct?

The way the sentence is written it seems that those countries provide the US funds by selling military equipment, doesn't it?

 

[jutfrank]

I agree that 'purchases' would be a bit clearer, yes, but I think the meaning is obvious enough as it is from the context, and from the fact that most people understand that the US doesn't buy military equipment from other nations—it sells it to them.