AUKUS and ITAR

If you are a US defense company and are doing business in the UK or Australia, or want to do business in the UK or Australia, your lives are about to get a lot more interesting! The recently formed AUKUS alliance between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States has raised questions about potential… Read More

The Great Eastern European Fire Sale

As the Ukraine war drags on, western allies continue to bolster Ukrainian military capability and fighting capacity by tapping large reserves of soviet era fighting equipment leftover in former Soviet satellite states like Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, and Poland. Most of these states have been more than happy to oblige as western allies sweeten the… Read More

Expediting Defense Export Approvals, with a Customer-Focused Approach

Shock, grief, fear, and anger: The 9/11 attacks inflicted a devastating emotional toll on everyone around the globe. The U.S. Government responded with swiftness and ingenuity, deploying measures to undertake numerous military operations intended to eliminate threats and enhance regional stability. There was also large-scale enlistment in the military for overseas support of the counterinsurgency… Read More

Navigating Mergers, Acquisitions, and Divestitures (MA&D) in the Aerospace & Defense Industry

Part 1: Before the Paperwork Introduction It’s no secret that the Aerospace and Defense Industry is rife with mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures (MA&D) between large primes, smaller contractors, and start-ups. As a business strategy, these dynamic restructurings within aerospace and defense sparks greater technological innovation and better control of supply chains. Similarly, strategic shifts through… Read More

Lessons Gained on the Path Towards CMMC Compliance

Organizations who operate or want to operate with Department of Defense (DoD) information are required to have the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). CMMC certifies that an organization has the appropriate level of cybersecurity infrastructure, policies, and procedures in place to handle and secure controlled data. For the past several months, DTS has been working… Read More

The ITAR Imperative

The International Trade in Arms Regulations (ITAR) regulates and controls the export of defense and military-related technologies to safeguard U.S. national security and further U.S. foreign policy objectives[1]. Most of us working within the U.S. defense trade always keep a copy of the ITAR next to us because it provides guidance to conduct business properly…. Read More

Costs of (Not) Disclosing

Every trade compliance department has gaps. Usually unintentional, these gaps can cause inadvertent violations of U.S. Government federal regulations such as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), Export Administration Regulations (EAR), Foreign Trade Regulations (FTR), or Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Regulations, among others. A healthy trade compliance department is aware of the potential for gaps in compliance and conducts regular audits and assessments to… Read More

The Human Rights of Defense Exports

When the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) of 1961 was passed, it included Section 502B(a)(1) asserting that a principal goal of U.S. foreign policy “shall be to promote the increased observance of internationally recognized human rights by all countries.”[1] Further, Section 502B(a)(2) confirms that absent the exercise of a presidential certification of, “extraordinary circumstances,” no security… Read More