U.S. defense companies, lawmakers and allies are calling for a revision of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which they say appear to hinder collaboration and could impact the alliance of the U.S. with Australia and the U.K. codified by the AUKUS partnership, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Under ITAR, the State Department approves the export of sensitive defense-related services, equipment and technical data from U.S. businesses to foreign entities. ITAR rules apply to components in missiles, aircraft, lasers, guns, spacecraft and other equipment.
“Reform of export controls, particularly ITAR, must happen to meet that mandate of urgency,” said Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn.
“Aukus is not a run-of-the-mill sale of military kit by a U.S. contractor,” added Courtney.
Officials with the State Department said they are developing an interim mechanism that would allow a preapproval process for exports between AUKUS countries.
“We want export controls to be able to safeguard our technology,” said Mira Resnick, a deputy assistant secretary at the State Department. “We also want Aukus to succeed. And for Aukus to succeed, we know that we need to be able to have much more robust, agile, flexible information sharing.”
Some U.S. lawmakers have already introduced reform measures, including a bill that would enable the State Department to employ more personnel to assess defense-related export license requests and speed up the process for exporting certain defense equipment to the U.K. and Australia.
