{"id":5617,"date":"2026-08-04T13:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T13:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/5617\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T13:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T13:58:08","slug":"europe-wants-itar-free-weapons-us-firms-are-trying-to-adjust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/5617\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe wants ITAR-free weapons. US firms are trying to adjust."},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON and FARNBOROUGH \u2014 US firms seeking to tap into ballooning European <\/a>defense budgets are finding a new roadblock emerging: a desire by European capitals to avoid US control of weapon sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There have long been concerns about how American International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) restrict foreign governments\u2019 ability to sell or transfer domestically built weapons that contain components originating in the US. And that concern is becoming harder to ignore as skepticism surrounding US and European relations has led to a serious push on the continent to move away from buying weapons with US-controlled parts, according to a half-dozen people who talked to Breaking Defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see that as a growing trend that needs to happen within the EU, as sort of, like, an edict that\u2019s come out,\u201d Honeywell Aerospace CEO Jim Currier told Breaking Defense during last month\u2019s Farnborough Airshow.<\/p>\n

European governments have \u201cbeen very, very clear in terms of how they want to fund, where they want to fund, their desire to have a more sovereign exposure,\u201d Currier added. \u201cThat\u2019s going to be an ongoing trend going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currier isn\u2019t alone in his view, with industry officials, analysts and lawyers also monitoring the changing market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tom Kanewske, the chief strategy officer for US drone producer Zone 5, said that in recent months, he has seen a sizable shift, with potential European partners becoming \u201cincreasingly opposed\u201d to ITAR restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, a belief has developed that ITAR will negatively affect their sovereign tech contribution and that they can avoid these challenges by steering away from US weapons systems,\u201d Kanewske added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ins And Outs\u00a0<\/p>\n

In its simplest terms, ITAR is<\/a> a set of US government rules to regulate the export and import of defense and military items on the United States Munitions List (USML), including services and technical data.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scott Wise, a partner at Crowell & Moring and a member of the law firm\u2019s international trade group, said the bulk of foreign governments\u2019 concerns on ITAR is the \u201csee-through rule.\u201d That rule, he told Breaking Defense, means ITAR regulators track the US-made components inside a foreign-built weapon system and control where those parts go and what they\u2019re used for.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf, for example, you are building a fighter jet in France, if you source ITAR components from the US, it\u2019s not that the fighter jet that becomes ITAR subject, [but] the item that you integrate into that fighter jet remains [an] ITAR subject,\u201d he explained. \u201cSo theoretically, if you take that fighter jet somewhere that would require a license, you don\u2019t need a license for the jet itself. You need a license for the [US] component that may be its engine, it\u2019s a turbine, [or] it\u2019s a wing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working with that example, if the French government wants to sell that military aircraft to another country, it will need US government permission to do so. And it could take days, weeks or months to obtain the required US license depending on which country is the buyer, according to a second lawyer working on ITAR-related issues who was granted anonymity to speak freely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The German Navy is set to receive first deliveries of new MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones in 2028 (German Armed Forces)<\/p>\n

There are also fears among some European governments that that time frame could be dragged out for political reasons if the weapon sale doesn\u2019t align with US interests.<\/p>\n

When it comes to Europeans selling weapon components to US defense prime contractors, only US produced items tracked by ITAR, or those items (including non-US items) produced with ITAR-controlled technical data, will be subject to ITAR, not the entire lot of European components, per both Wise and the second lawyer.<\/p>\n

However, if that European component is then modified for the US weapon, the modified version could become an ITAR-controlled item. That necessitates careful planning and development on the part of European companies, which have to avoid incorporating technical data obtained from US primes they\u2019re doing business with into their products, the second lawyer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t want to be incorporating that back into your main design because you could taint your own technology,\u201d the second lawyer added.<\/p>\n

Changing Tides\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

ITAR has been around for decades, and the concerns over the regime\u2019s process slowing down potential sales or giving the US too much control have been around almost as long. But the US, especially in the last 20 years, has been effectively the only game in town for many weapons used by western nations, and so the issue was accepted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That seems to be changing thanks to the two-pronged realities of deteriorating relationships between Washington and Europe, and the sudden surge in European defense spending and subsequent push to build weapons domestically.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Canada isn\u2019t in Europe, it is a member of NATO with close ties to the US defense industrial base. The recent Canadian Defence Industrial Strategy<\/a> is designed, in part, to depend less <\/a>on US defense contractors by growing production capability at home and inking \u201cnew, ambitious, and comprehensive\u201d partnerships with the European Union and the United Kingdom given their \u201cshared values and common interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

European nations are also looking to shore up their production lines, as outlined in the 2024 European Defence Industrial Strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has taken credit for NATO allies stepping up defense spending and boosting production, and senior officials have dismissed the possibility of second-order effects that could impact the US defense industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby recently took to social media<\/a> to dispute \u201ccommentary\u201d that \u201calleged frustrations\u201d with the US in Europe will lead to fewer weapons sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is neither feasible nor accurate,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe simple fact of the matter is that no alternative country or countries can compete with the U.S. defense industrial base, either in quantity or quality,\u201d Colby added. \u201cThe United States, as the President says, makes the best equipment, and we make it at a scale that no plausible competitor can match. If anything, access to the American DIB is a privilege, not a right.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby (R) joins Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to host South Korean Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-back for bilateral talks at the Pentagon on May 11, 2026 in Arlington, Virginia. (Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Elias Yousif, a Stimson Center fellow and deputy director for Conventional Defense, called this \u201cseemingly paradoxical approach\u201d by the Trump administration interesting. He said the growing \u201cITAR-free\u201d push is one avenue for foreign allies and partners to create defense independence and to minimize US imports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are real operational and strategic costs about having defense systems in place that demand sustained, enduring support from Washington to keep functioning, [like] software updates and supply components,\u201d Yousif said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf one day the United States is at odds with Europe and it has the ability to turn the off switch on,\u201d he added, \u201cthat\u2019s a real problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long-Term Implications\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Industry seems to be viewing the ITAR concerns as a growing trend, one they are only starting to react to. European firms, meanwhile, are starting to use being \u201cITAR-free\u201d as a marketing move, Zone 5\u2019s Kanewske said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[They are] weaponizing the fact that they are \u2018ITAR-free\u2019 and gaining unique market access in countries where US defense firms previously held a more secure footing,\u201d Kanewske explained during a recent interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs NATO countries commit more to defense spending, we will likely see an increasing trend of European defense firms leveraging this \u2018ITAR-free\u2019 buzz line to their advantage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lithuania\u2019s Aktyvus Photonics is one such company proactively marketing its laser targeting payloads as an ITAR-free option for European-based companies to use.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are seeing US as a reliable partner, but if there is a possibility not to have US in the supply chain for some of the products and the components, they would love to have some counterweight along that, so that\u2019s what we are typically discussing with our customers,\u201d Aktyvus CEO Laurynas \u0160atas told Breaking Defense during a recent interview.<\/p>\n

However, producing a system free of US tech is easier said than done. \u0160atas called it a\u201chuge challenge\u201d for the company to produce products that are \u201cequally good or better\u201d in terms of size, weight, power, and operational parameters, without using US components.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very clear that when you go deeper into a supply chain, there are lots of technologies, especially in the dual-use and military [realms], which are not usable in other markets [outside of the US],\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"\"France\u2019s President Emmanuel Macron stands in front of a Leclerc tank during an exercise in Zayed Military City on Dec. 22, 2025. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Kanewske is hopeful that before US firms start losing workshare in Europe, the government will push for reforms. While the Pentagon and State Department are engaged in a larger defense export reform effort, it\u2019s not clear whether that will impact ITAR requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow is the time to cooperatively work with US government stakeholders to reorient ITAR so that we better separate defense export\/re-export from tech security and tech diffusion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) CEO Eric Fanning told Breaking Defense that ITAR reform is \u201calways a big topic\u201d for American companies, and said that now is the time to seek reforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of talk from the Europeans about trying to buy ITAR-free, develop ITAR-free equipment. We want to avoid getting to that state so we have to reform the system on our side, I think,\u201d Fanning, a former US Army secretary, said at the Farnborough Airshow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That reform, however, has to be done in the \u201cright\u201d way, he said. ITAR, after all, exists for a reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to make sure that our technology doesn\u2019t get into the wrong hands, and so it\u2019s a complicated process,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think anybody believes there aren\u2019t ways to accelerate it and streamline it and still get it right, and maybe even get it better.<\/p>\n

ITAR reforms should involve informing allies as soon as possible whether or not a certain US-made component can be sold to a foreign buyer, according to Fanning. \u201cThe worst thing is to make an ally wait,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re not gonna sell to them, we ought to just say that up front,\u201d he added. \u201cEverybody wants reform on that, so that we don\u2019t push people away.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, US firms are left to consider how to respond to the ITAR-free push in Europe \u2014 and how to market themselves.<\/p>\n

At Honeywell Aerospace, Currier said the company is looking for ways to capitalize on the Europeans desires, and that means talking more about the 13 European countries his company operates in and the five that have manufacturing facilities on the continent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have all of that footprint in place, and so it\u2019s\u2026looking, acting [and] feeling like you\u2019re a European company when you do this,\u201d Currier added. \u201cAnd there\u2019s been recognition of that, to be very honest with you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON and FARNBOROUGH \u2014 US firms seeking to tap into ballooning European defense budgets are finding a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[348,14,3350,93,3351,349,357,3352,3353,2352,3354],"class_list":["post-5617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-business-industry","tag-defence-industry","tag-eric-fanning","tag-europe","tag-fms-foreign-military-sales","tag-global","tag-honeywell-aerospace","tag-itar","tag-jim-currier","tag-pentagon","tag-zone-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}