Title: A bill to amend the Arms Export Control Act to prohibit the export of certain unmanned aircraft systems.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This bill limits the export of certain unmanned aircraft systems and related equipment.
Specifically, such systems and equipment may not be exported except to the government of (1) a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member country, (2) Australia, (3) Israel, (4) Japan, (5) New Zealand, or (6) South Korea.
This limitation shall apply to unmanned aircraft systems that (1) are described in the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) Annex, or (2) meet certain qualifications relating to flight range and payload capacity.
(The MTCR is a multilateral informal political understanding that addresses the proliferation of missile technologies.)


[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4474 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 4474

To amend the Arms Export Control Act to prohibit the export of certain 
                       unmanned aircraft systems.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             August 6, 2020

Mr. Murphy (for himself, Mr. Lee, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Coons, and Mr. Paul) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                     Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Arms Export Control Act to prohibit the export of certain 
                       unmanned aircraft systems.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. PROHIBITION ON EXPORT OF CERTAIN UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS.

    Chapter 7 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2797 et seq.) 
is amended by inserting after section 73B the following:

``SEC. 73C. PROHIBITION ON EXPORT OF CERTAIN UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS.

    ``(a) In General.--Except as provided by subsection (b), the 
export, transfer, or trade of covered unmanned aircraft systems, or 
equipment, assemblies, or components for such systems, is prohibited.
    ``(b) Exception.--The prohibition under subsection (a) does not 
apply to the export, transfer, or trade of systems, equipment, 
assemblies, or components described in that subsection to the 
government of any of the following:
            ``(1) A country that is a member of the North Atlantic 
        Treaty Organization.
            ``(2) Australia.
            ``(3) Israel.
            ``(4) Japan.
            ``(5) New Zealand.
            ``(6) South Korea.
    ``(c) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Covered unmanned aircraft system.--The term `covered 
        unmanned aircraft system' means an unmanned aircraft system--
                    ``(A) capable of delivering a payload of not less 
                than 500 kilograms over a range of not less than 300 
                kilometers; or
                    ``(B) described in item 1.A.2 of category I of the 
                MTCR Annex.
            ``(2) Payload.--The term `payload' means the total mass 
        that can be carried or delivered by an unmanned aircraft system 
        that is not used to maintain flight.
            ``(3) Range.--The term `range' means the maximum distance 
        that an unmanned aircraft system is capable of traveling in the 
        mode of stable flight as measured by the projection of its 
        trajectory over the surface of the Earth.''.
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