US DROPS CURBS ON DRONE TECH

US drops restrictions to boost arms sales.

The United States dropped some restrictions on Thursday on sales of its advanced drones in order to reinforce the armies of its allies and compete with China on world arms market.

President Donald Trump's White House announced an update to its policy  on arms  transfers to promote US exports and  jobs, and specifically to loosen the rules on selling unmanned warplanes.

Trump's chief trade advisor, Peter Navarro, said the move was designed to reverse former President Barack Obama's 'myopic' decision to limit even US allies access to drone technology.

Allowing US arms firms to directly market drones instead of  foreign customers to apply to the government would, he said, allow them to compete against sales of Chinese  ''knock-offs''.

''The administration's UAS export policy will level the playing field by enabling US firms to increase their direct sales to authorized allies and partners,'' he said, referring to ''Unmanned Aerial Systems''.

Navarro said US weapons and aerospace exports are worth a trillion dollars a year, support 2.5 million well-paid jobs and form a key plank of Trump's ambition to wipe out America's trade deficit.

But he said the market or alone could grow to $50 billion in a decade and that officials are ''seeing  Chinese replicas of American UAS technology deployed on the runways in the Middle East.''

As an example, he cited China's Wing Loong 2 medium-altitude, long-endurance drone.

This reconnaissance and missile platform was on display to potential clients at  2017  Paris Air Show but is, he  said, ''a clear knock-off'' of US firm General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper.

''The fact is our allies and partners  want to buy American,'' Navarro said, noting Trump was putting his ''America First'' slogan at the heart of arms sales policy. [Agencies]

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