UAV Export Controls

Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) is worried the federal government isn't doing enough to ensure U.S. unmanned systems technology doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

Tierney, the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform national security, homeland defense and foreign operations subcommittee, says in a statement issued today that a July Government Accountability Office report "has found that a lack of information sharing among federal agencies has hindered our ability to keep drone technology out of the hands of our enemies." Further:

"The fact that the U.S. Government has allowed drone technology to fall into the hands of our enemies is extremely troubling for our country and our military. The Administration must take immediate steps to increase efforts to curb the spread of drones and reduce this threat to our national security," Congressman Tierney said. "I call on the Departments of Defense and State to take swift action on the recommendations in this report."

Most notably, the GAO report released today finds that countries with drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) nearly doubled in seven years and many of the countries that have acquired UAVs could put U.S. military assets at risk. Due to inadequate information sharing, U.S. drone technology has made its way into the hands of so-called "countries of concern" and terrorist organizations.

According to the GAO report itself:

GAO recommends that [the] State [Department] improve its export licensing database to better identify authorized UAV exports, that relevant agencies improve mechanisms for sharing information relevant to the export licensing process, and that State and DOD harmonize their UAV end-use monitoring approaches. The agencies generally agreed with the recommendations.

View the GAO report.