In the United States, a growing number of legislators are challenging the value and purpose of continuing traditional military aid to Israel. The brutality of the Israeli government’s regional military campaigns has eroded the support that once prevailed for providing billions of US taxpayer dollars annually into Israeli accounts to purchase US weapons.

Proponents of the US-Israel partnership, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are now pitching a shift away from aid and toward jointly funded and built projects commonly referred to as “co-production,” but more precisely meaning “cooperative projects.” Supporters argue that the shift will deliver more value for US investments; however, that framing misrepresents how cooperative defense projects work in both theory and practice.

This policy brief lays out what cooperative projects are, how they fit within the United States’ legal and regulatory architecture, how they have been funded and implemented in practice, and the risks that cooperative projects present.