Mr. Speaker, given the multinational character of the JSF program and the global nature of the supply chain, the JSF partnership has been highly proactive in the development of a unique export control regime to accommodate the United States’ International Traffic in Arms Regulations, ITAR, which control the export of defence-related articles and services identified on the United States Munitions List.
First, the JSF partners have negotiated the establishment of a working group, the international matters working group, dedicated to identifying and addressing any export control issues that detract from the successful execution of the program.
Second, the partnership is making every effort to expedite export licensing with the United States government, even dedicating people to address JSF-related export licensing. This has greatly improved export licensing times, with the average JSF licence being executed in less than 30 days rather than the typical 45 to 120 days.
Finally, the partnership is also addressing export control issues related to the sustainment of the F-35, with an innovative process being developed to ensure the rapid transfer of technological items from one partner to another, including industry in partner nations. Under the current process, every transfer between industries or between industries and governments requires a separate re-transfer authorization. Given the thousands of weekly transfers anticipated in the sustainment phase of the JSF program, such an arrangement is unworkable. The JSF partnership is, therefore, working towards a revolutionary regime whereby re-transfer authorizations are eliminated for all companies and governments identified and cleared by the regime.