The United States will authorize for the first time the export of armed drones to allied nations, according to media reports. The new policy has been announced this Tuesday. The exact rules will remain classified but, according to Reuters, requests by foreign governments will be examined on a case by case basis and allied states must agree to certain “end use assurances.”
A June 2014 report by the Stimson Center’s Drone Task Force, noted on this subject that, “The U.S. government should also inquire into the broader non-proliferation effect of the MTCR Category I presumption of denial. The U.S. government should determine whether, in the long run, the presumption remains a useful non-proliferation tool or inadvertently fosters the growth of foreign UAV manufacturing capability by suppressing the participation of U.S. industry in the global MTCR Category I UAV market.” However, no further details on the exact policy governing the sales of Category I drones have been made publicly available as of now.