A shooting puts the spotlight on military training for allies

Mohammad Al-Shamrani was at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida to hone his flying skills. On December 6th the Saudi Arabian pilot turned his gun on his hosts, shooting 11 people and killing three. That has put a spotlight on the 5,181 foreign students from 153 countries currently receiving military training in America. In fiscal 2017-18 foreign governments splashed out $462.4m for American security training, and the American government chipped in another $39.8m. The main exchange programme is the $115m International Military Education and Training scheme, funded by the State Department. It includes 4,000 courses across 150 American military schools.