BIS Evaluates Effect of Export Controls on Night Vision Equipment Market

The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a Critical Technology Assessment on night vision focal plane arrays, sensors, and cameras. The report, compiled by the BIS Office of Technology Evaluation, was done to examine the impact of export controls on key existing or emerging technologies that are subject to the Export Administration Regulations. The night vision equipment examined in this assessment is controlled under U.S. Munitions List Category XII and EAR ECCNs 6A002 and 6A003. Highlights of the report include:

• The number of current and projected dual-use product lines for night vision sensor components and imaging equipment is greater than the number of military-use-only product lines. The exception to this is cooled infrared cameras.
• There has been a spike in both U.S. and non-U.S. dual-use uncooled infrared camera sales from 2009-2010. This spike in sales coincides with the implementation of the 2009 rule that reduced licensing requirements to some regime partners for dual-use uncooled infrared cameras controlled under ECCN 6A003.
• Military-use-only night vision components and equipment have different physical and technical characteristics than dual-use night vision components and equipment (e.g., weapons mounting, stability software, special packaging), which could be used as a discriminator in controlling items on the USML and CCL.
• There are numerous applications that are specific to military-use-only components and equipment that are not shared by dual-use components and equipment, and vice-versa.
• There is widespread availability of night vision components and equipment among Wassenaar Arrangement regime members.
• There is evidence that certain items across all types of night vision components and equipment are available from outside of regime members. These countries include Belarus, China, India, Israel, Singapore, and Taiwan.