DDTC Tracking Whether F35 Jets Violated Export Controls, Official Says

The State Department is monitoring whether the U.S. delivery of certain F-35 aircraft -- which were revealed this month to contain certain Chinese components -- violated export controls, senior agency official Mike Miller said. He said the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is “certainly tracking” the case but declined to say whether the agency will issue any penalties. “As to what compliance actions we may be taking with the company,” Miller said, “I can’t speak to that in specific.”

The Pentagon stopped accepting new Lockheed Martin F-35 jets after it found a magnet used in the engine was made with a Chinese-origin alloy that didn’t comply with U.S. procurement laws, Reuters reported this month. Miller, speaking during a Sept. 27 defense industry conference hosted by IDEEA, said the U.S. didn’t ground any F-35s “currently in service” but stopped certain deliveries of the jets, which was a “significant impact to the defense industrial base.”

Miller suggested DDTC is looking at whether there was a “provision of controlled information for the production of these” jets, which would “potentially lead to a compliance action.”

Miller also touched on other DDTC priorities, including its new open general license program released in July (see 2207200005). Although the licenses were rolled out as a one-year pilot program, Miller said “it’s fair to say that that will likely be extended.”

He also said the agency is hoping to finalize a proposed rule that would revise the International Traffic in Arms Regulations’ exemption for certain transfers to dual or third-country nationals (see 2202010014). “We've identified that as something we’d like to see published in final before the end of the year,” Miller said. “It's a very busy time for the Office of Management Budget,” but “that's our aim.”

DDTC has also worked to expedite certain export license reviews for Ukraine, turning some applications around in less than 24 hours (see 2204290032). But the agency is now seeing “an increase in the sensitivity of technology that we and our partners are providing to Ukraine,” Miller said, including an “accumulation of a fair amount of brokering activity.” He said the agency is “staffing with rigor” to help with the work.