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As many as 66 countries would be eligible to buy U.S. drones under new Defense Department guidelines but
Congress and the State Department, which have a final say, have not yet opened the spigots for exports, a
senior Pentagon official said on Wednesday.
The 66 countries were listed in a Defense Department policy worked out last year to clear the way for wider
overseas sales of unmanned aerial systems, as the Pentagon calls such drones, said Richard Genaille, deputy
director of the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
Northrop Grumman Corp chief executive Wes Bush on Wednesday praised the Obama administration for what
he described as significant moves to boost arms exports, but voiced frustration at delays in codifying them in
a new export policy.
U.S. arms makers are looking abroad to help offset Pentagon spending cuts spurred by U.S. deficit-reduction
requirements.
Northrop Grumman’s ability to boost its overseas arms sales, which now account for less than 10 percent of
its overall revenues, hinges largely on streamlined export controls, Bush said.
The administration last year began informally consulting Congress on plans to sell Global Hawk to South Korea
before withdrawing the proposed sale for reasons that have not been publicly disclosed.
Japan, Singapore and Australia also have shown interest in acquiring the aircraft, a Northrop Grumman
spokeswoman told Reuters last year.
Bush said that failure to allow such exports could spark a repeat of the 1990s, when strict curbs on U.S.
commercial satellite sales prompted other countries to develop rival hardware and software. Those efforts
eventually eroded the market share of U.S. satellite producers from more than 70 percent to just around 25
percent.
“The consequences of the decisions that were made in the early ‘90s were devastating for the US industrial
base, and ultimately did nothing to enhance security, and in fact, were detrimental to our security,” he said.
As many as 66 countries would be eligible to buy U.S. drones under new Defense Department guidelines but
Congress and the State Department, which have a final say, have not yet opened the spigots for exports, a
senior Pentagon official said on Wednesday.
The 66 countries were listed in a Defense Department policy worked out last year to clear the way for wider
overseas sales of unmanned aerial systems, as the Pentagon calls such drones, said Richard Genaille, deputy
director of the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
Northrop Grumman Corp chief executive Wes Bush on Wednesday praised the Obama administration for what
he described as significant moves to boost arms exports, but voiced frustration at delays in codifying them in
a new export policy.
U.S. arms makers are looking abroad to help offset Pentagon spending cuts spurred by U.S. deficit-reduction
requirements.
Northrop Grumman’s ability to boost its overseas arms sales, which now account for less than 10 percent of
its overall revenues, hinges largely on streamlined export controls, Bush said.
The administration last year began informally consulting Congress on plans to sell Global Hawk to South Korea
before withdrawing the proposed sale for reasons that have not been publicly disclosed.
Japan, Singapore and Australia also have shown interest in acquiring the aircraft, a Northrop Grumman
spokeswoman told Reuters last year.
Bush said that failure to allow such exports could spark a repeat of the 1990s, when strict curbs on U.S.
commercial satellite sales prompted other countries to develop rival hardware and software. Those efforts
eventually eroded the market share of U.S. satellite producers from more than 70 percent to just around 25
percent.
“The consequences of the decisions that were made in the early ‘90s were devastating for the US industrial
base, and ultimately did nothing to enhance security, and in fact, were detrimental to our security,” he said.
