National Defense Quotes Partner Eric McClafferty on Foreign UAV Markets

Partner Eric McClafferty was quoted in the National Defense article ​“Export Controls Threaten U.S. Edge in Foreign UAV Markets.” The article discusses the red tape that unmanned aircraft manufacturers must navigate when marketing their products overseas, even in the wake of the Obama administration relaxing other rules on selling less-sensitive military hardware to foreign countries. Eric explained how, in the race to capture a share of the $81 billion international UAV market through 2021, the industry is being hobbled by restrictive export controls that lump them in with missiles. He said, ​“What is happening now is that at the multilateral level, all these countries are talking about revising the MTCR [Missile Technology Control Regime] to split out unmanned vehicles into categories. That’s going to take a long time because you’re talking about a multilateral agreement.” He added that U.S. unmanned systems manufacturers also want to avoid losing business to foreign UAV builders that are not governed by such restrictive export controls.

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