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U.S. Reinterprets MTCR Rules to Fast Track Drone Sales
October 2025
By Shizuka Kuramitsu
The United States has decided to unilaterally reinterpret rules designed to control missile transfers so it can facilitate the sale of drones, the State Department announced Sept. 15.
In a statement, the department said that in order to “ensure predictable and reliable delivery of American products to foreign partners, and advance U.S. competitiveness abroad for unmanned systems [it] will now review requests to export [unmanned aerial systems] similar to how it reviews requests to export manned fighter aircraft.”
The new policy will make the United States “the premier drone provider instead of ceding that space to Turkey and China,” a U.S. official, speaking anonymously, told Reuters.
Under the policy, the Trump administration will reinterpret how the United States applies the guidelines set forth by the 1987 Missile Technology Control Regime, which is a voluntary export control regime involving 35 states that seeks to limit the proliferation of missiles and related technology that can carry weapons of mass destruction.
Under the MTCR, exports of Category I systems are subject to a “strong presumption to deny … transfers.” That category includes complete rocket systems and unmanned air vehicle systems that exceeds a range of 300 kilometers and a payload of 500 kilograms.
In a note to key congressional committees Sept. 3, the State Department noted that the change will enable it to “adjudicate foreign defense sales requests more efficiently, opening new markets for the U.S.”
It also asserted that U.S. export controls on missile technology “must keep pace with the speed and scope of technological developments, especially as the use of unmanned systems on the battlefield has become increasingly common for allies and adversaries alike.”
Reuters reported that this new interpretation of the MTCR “would unlock the sale of more than 100 MQ-9 drones to Saudi Arabia, which the kingdom requested in the spring of this year and could be part of a $142 billion arms deal announced in May.” By contrast, the United States “has not been selling or donating large drones to Kyiv for fear that advanced technologies could fall into enemy hands.”
President Donald Trump also revised the MTCR policy in 2020, during his first administration, to expedite sales of unmanned aerial vehicles. (See ACT, September 2020.) The new change “complements recent modifications to the national … MTCR-focused export policy under [the Biden administration’s] National Security Memorandum 28 and advances reforms made under the 2020 Revised UAS Export Policy,” a State Department factsheet said.
At the same time, the department emphasized the U.S. commitment to continue “to ensure its arms transfer review processes are implemented in a manner that does not contribute to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or their delivery systems,” and noted that the MTCR “remains an important component of U.S. national security policy.”