EAR Export Administration Regulations
The US Commerce Department export-control regime for dual-use and less-sensitive military items, the counterpart to ITAR for goods that aren't purely military.
EAR is the export-control system that sits next to ITAR, not above or below it, covering a different slice of the same problem: how the US government decides what can leave the country. Where ITAR governs items on the US Munitions List through the State Department, EAR is administered by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)1 under 15 CFR Parts 730 to 774,2 and it applies to dual-use technology and less-sensitive military items listed on the Commerce Control List (CCL) instead of the USML.
“Dual-use” is the operative word: navigation chips, certain sensors, machine tools, and software with both civilian and military applications typically fall under EAR rather than ITAR, alongside a subset of military hardware that Congress has designated as less sensitive. The licensing bar is generally lower than ITAR’s, but it is not zero, and EAR carries its own reach: US-origin software or technology embedded in a foreign-made product can still trigger US export-control jurisdiction over that product, a rule exporters refer to as the de minimis threshold.
Why the distinction matters for procurement
Whether a given component falls under ITAR or EAR changes who can buy it, how fast, and under what paperwork. A drone with a purely commercial-grade autopilot may clear export under EAR in weeks; the same airframe fitted with a weapons-release system moves onto the USML and into ITAR’s much slower State Department licensing track. Manufacturers sometimes design a system specifically to stay on the EAR side of that line, since it is easier to sell into markets where full US Munitions List items cannot go.
For a comparison of how ITAR and Foreign Military Sales fit into the same export chain, see the related terms below.
Sources
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