Major reform to US export policies for satellites and related items is on the horizon after recommendations put forward by the Departments of Defense and State.
The recommendations formed part of a government report that assessed the national…
Major reform to US export policies for satellites and related items is on the horizon after recommendations put forward by the Departments of Defense and State.
The recommendations formed part of a government report that assessed the national security risk of reforming 1999 legislation that currently requires satellite-related technology to be treated as munitions. The report represented the final hurdle before efforts to change export rules can be considered in Congress.
Under the US government’s International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), the current classification of satellite-related technology not only prohibits it from being exported to security threats such as China, but also to NATO allies.
The government report, published on 18 April, said there was a continued need for certain space-related technology to be treated as munitions. It said items that should remain on the Department of State-administered United States Munitions List (USML) include military and high-performance remote sensing satellites, as well as any unique components used to build them.
However, the report also recommended that communications satellites that do not contain classified components, and remote sensing satellites below certain performance thresholds, should be controlled, along with their respective components, on the Commerce Control List (CCL). This list is administered by the Department of Commerce.
The report concluded: “Applying more stringent export control policies and practices than are imposed by other advanced satellite-exporting countries places the US satellite industry at a distinct, competitive disadvantage that undermines the US space industrial base to the detriment of US national security, while doing nothing to protect the technological advances that are critical to giving our war fighters the advantages that US technology can afford them.”
The findings will serve as a boost to a bill already doing the rounds in Congress, which aims to give the US President the flexibility to remove satellite equipment from the USML when deemed appropriate. The ‘H.R. 3288’ bill was submitted late last year by a bipartisan group of US Congressmen, led by House Affairs Committee ranking member Howard Bernman.
Patricia Cooper, president of the Washington-based Satellite Industry Association (SIA) trade body, which includes US aerospace giants Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Loral Space & Communications, welcomed the report as a major step in the right direction.
“The satellite and space communities are reviewing the report’s detailed technical analysis and recommendations, which collectively reflect a more contemporary picture of the national security, space, and satellite environments,” said Cooper.
“SIA and its member companies look to the House of Representatives to support the existing satellite export control reform bill, H.R. 3288, and seek the introduction of companion legislation in the Senate.”
The satellite sector is the only industry in the US for which Congress mandates export control policy through legislation. The original legislation was approved more than a decade ago in response to revelations that some US companies had given unauthorised technical assistance to China’s space launch programme. Because all foreign commercial satellites had US components back then, this was an effective way of forbidding their launch on Chinese launchers.
However, since then, non-US satellite manufacturers such as Thales Alenia Space have developed so-called ITAR-free product lines. Such products enable Western operators to use Chinese launch vehicles, which can be cheaper for operators.
The legislation has also been heavily criticised by manufacturers for helping to reduce the US market share of global satellite exports.
