Abu Dhabi: The Middle East CEO of defence giant Northrop Grumman said on Monday afternoon that he “very much hopes” that US arms export regulations will change under the Trump administration, adding that he understands a change will take place.
Speaking in an interview at Idex, Walid Abukhaled, CEO of Northrop Grumman Middle East, said “I’d be surprised if it doesn’t improve, because it does takes a long time for things to happen, from the day a customer shows interest to the time the approval comes. Then there’s also an additional time for delivery.”
“This has been acknowledged at the highest level of government in the US, I believe. And they are committed to working on that,” he added.
ITAR is a set of US restrictions that govern the sale and export of arms and other defence-related products to certain countries, including GCC states.
Lockheed Martin was charged in 2008 for providing classified technical data to the UAE, relating to the sale of Hellfire missiles. Lockheed contended that they thought a license for the materials was already in place.
That same year Northrop Grumman was also charged with violating ITAR compliance on exports to a variety of countries around the world, and was later charged $20 million.
The defence industry argues that ITAR overreach is cumbersome and hinders the sale of US-made arms and equipment. Many hope that Trump continues the work started by the previous administration to reform export controls and rollback ITAR.
Abukhaled argued that “hearing it from one of the most senior US government officials responsible for ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations), and hearing them acknowledge that there could be improvements in the system that need to take place” signals a coming policy shift that is “safe and does well for them and their allies.”
It was unclear which senior government officials the CEO was referring to in these remarks.
He added that he understands that the current US administration has a programme and they’re working on reforming the system.
“I can’t speak on their behalf, but that’s what I’ve heard from them.”
“Of course it’s needs to be safe, and we need to make sure that advanced weapons systems go to the right people, to our allies,” he continued.
“But response time is so important for our customers, they’d like to know as soon as possible whether the answer is ‘yes,’ or ‘no’.”
Abukhaled added “this is what we’d love.”
Northrop Grumman was the fifth-largest defence contractor in the world in 2015 with reported revenues of over $23.5 billion. The US company employs over 68,000 people worldwide.
