Category VIII
Aircraft and Related Articles
Paragraphs marked SME are Significant Military Equipment.
| Paragraph | Text |
|---|---|
| (a) | Aircraft, whether manned, unmanned, remotely piloted, or optionally piloted, as follows (MT if the aircraft, excluding manned aircraft, has a range equal to or greater than 300 km): |
| (1) | Bombers; SME |
| (2) | Fighters, fighter bombers, and fixed-wing attack aircraft; SME |
| (3) | Turbofan- or turbojet-powered trainers used to train pilots for fighter, attack, or bomber aircraft; SME |
| (4) | Attack helicopters; SME |
| (5) | Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) specially designed to incorporate a defense article; SME |
| (6) | [Reserved] SME |
| (7) | Aircraft specially designed to incorporate a defense article for the purpose of performing an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance function; SME |
| (8) | Aircraft specially designed to incorporate a defense article for the purpose of performing an electronic warfare function; airborne warning and control aircraft; or aircraft specially designed to incorporate a defense article for the purpose of performing a command, control, and communications function; SME |
| (9) | Aircraft specially designed to incorporate a defense article for the purpose of performing an air refueling function; |
| (10) | Target drones; |
| (11) | [Reserved] |
| (12) | Aircraft capable of being refueled in-flight including hover-in-flight refueling (HIFR); |
| (13) | [Reserved] |
| (14) | Aircraft with a roll-on/roll-off ramp, capable of airlifting payloads over 35,000 lbs. to ranges over 2,000 nm without being refueled in-flight, and landing onto short or unimproved airfields, other than L-100 and LM-100J aircraft; |
| (15) | Aircraft not enumerated in paragraphs (a)(1) through (a)(14) as follows: SME |
| (i) | U.S.-origin aircraft that bear an original military designation of A, B, E, F, K, M, P, R, or S; or |
| (ii) | Foreign-origin aircraft specially designed to provide functions equivalent to those of the aircraft listed in paragraph (a)(15)(i) of this category; or |
| (16) | Aircraft that are armed or are specially designed to be used as a platform to deliver munitions or otherwise destroy targets (e.g., firing lasers, launching rockets, firing missiles, dropping bombs, or strafing); |
| (b) | -(c) [Reserved] |
| (d) | Launching and recovery equipment specially designed to allow an aircraft described in paragraph (a) of this category to take off or land on a vessel described in Category VI paragraphs (a) through (c) (MT if the launching and recovery equipment is for an aircraft, excluding manned aircraft, that has a range equal to or greater than 300 km). |
| (e) | [Reserved] |
| (f) | Developmental aircraft funded by the Department of Defense via contract or other funding authorization, and specially designed parts, components, accessories, and attachments therefor. |
| (g) | [Reserved] |
| (h) | Parts, components, accessories, attachments, associated equipment and systems, as follows: |
| (1) | Parts, components, accessories, and attachments specially designed for aircraft listed within paragraphs (h)(1)(i) through (ii) of this category, excluding those common to aircraft that are or were in production and are not listed within paragraphs (h)(1)(i) through (iv) of this category, as follows: |
| (i) | B-1, B-2, B-21, F-15SE (Silent Eagle), F/A-18E/F, EA-18G, F-22, F-35, F-47, F-117, MQ-25, RQ-170, or future variants thereof; |
| (ii) | U.S. Government technology demonstrators; |
| (iv) | Aircraft included in a USML Category XXI(a) determination; |
| (2) | Rotorcraft gearboxes with internal pitch line velocities exceeding 20,000 feet per minute and able to operate 30 minutes with loss of lubrication without an emergency or auxiliary lubrication system, and specially designed parts and components therefor; |
| (3) | Tail boom folding systems, stabilator folding systems or automatic rotor blade folding systems, and specially designed parts and components therefor; |
| (4) | Wing folding systems, and specially designed parts and components therefor, for: |
| (i) | Aircraft powered by power plants controlled under USML Category IV(d); or |
| (ii) | Aircraft with any of the following characteristics and powered by gas turbine engines: |
| (5) | On-aircraft arresting gear (e.g., tail hooks and drag chutes) and specially designed parts and components therefor; |
| (6) | Bomb racks, missile or rocket launchers, missile rails, weapon pylons, pylon-to-launcher adapters, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) airborne launching systems, external stores support systems for ordnance or weapons, and specially designed parts and components therefor (MT if the bomb rack, missile launcher, missile rail, weapon pylon, pylon-to-launcher adapter, UAV airborne launching system, or external stores support system is for an aircraft, excluding manned aircraft, or missile that has a “range” equal to or greater than 300 km); |
| (7) | Damage or failure-adaptive flight control systems, that do not consist solely of redundant internal circuitry, specially designed for aircraft controlled in this category; |
| (8) | Threat-adaptive autonomous flight control systems, where a “threat-adaptive autonomous flight control system” is a flight control system that, without input from the operator or pilot, adjusts the aircraft control or flight path to minimize risk caused by hostile threats; |
| (9) | Non-surface-based flight control systems and effectors (e.g., thrust vectoring from gas ports other than main engine thrust vector); |
| (10) | Radar altimeters with output power management LPI (low probability of intercept) or signal modulation (i.e., frequency hopping, chirping, direct sequence-spectrum spreading) LPI capabilities (MT if for an aircraft, excluding manned aircraft, or missile that has a “range” equal to or greater than 300 km); |
| (11) | Air-to-air refueling systems and hover-in-flight refueling (HIFR) systems, and specially designed parts and components therefor; |
| (12) | Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight control systems and vehicle management systems with swarming capability (i.e. UAVs that operate autonomously (without human input) to interact with each other to avoid collisions, fly in formations, and are capable of adapting in real-time to changes in operational/threat environment, or, if weaponized, coordinate targeting) (MT if for an aircraft, excluding manned aircraft, or missile that has a “range” equal to or greater than 300 km); |
| (13) | [Reserved] |
| (14) | Lift fans, clutches, and roll posts for short take-off, vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft and specially designed parts and components for such lift fans and roll posts; |
| (15) | Integrated helmets incorporating optical sights or slewing devices, which include the ability to aim, launch, track, or manage munitions (e.g., Helmet Mounted Cueing Systems, Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing Systems (JHMCS), Helmet Mounted Displays, Display and Sight Helmets (DASH)), and specially designed parts, components, accessories, and attachments therefor; |
| (16) | Fire control computers, stores management systems, armaments control processors, and aircraft-weapon interface units and computers (e.g., AGM-88 HARM Aircraft Launcher Interface Computer (ALIC)); |
| (17) | Mission computers, vehicle management computers, and integrated core processers specially designed for aircraft controlled in this category; |
| (18) | Drive systems, flight control systems, and parts and components therefor, specially designed to function after impact of a 7.62mm or larger projectile; |
| (19) | Thrust reversers specially designed to be deployed in flight for aircraft controlled in this category; |
| (20) | Any part, component, accessory, attachment, equipment, or system that: SME |
| (i) | Is classified; |
| (ii) | Contains classified software directly related to defense articles in this subchapter or 600 series items subject to the EAR; or |
| (21) | -(26) [Reserved] |
| (27) | Variable speed gearboxes, where a “variable speed gearbox” has the ability to vary the gearbox output speed by mechanical means within the gearbox while the gearbox input speed from the engine or other source is constant, and is capable of varying output speed by 20% or greater and providing power to rotors, proprotors, propellers, propfans, or liftfans; and specially designed parts and components therefor; |
| (28) | Electrical power or thermal management systems specially designed for an engine controlled in Category XIX and having any of the following: |
| (i) | Electrical power generators that provide greater than 300kW of electrical power (per generator) with gravimetric power densities exceeding 2kW/pound (excluding the mass of the controller for the purpose of calculating the gravimetric power density); |
| (ii) | Heat exchangers that exchange 60 kW/K-m 3 or 1 kW/K of heat or greater into the gas turbine engine flow path; or |
| (29) | Any of the following equipment if specially designed for defense articles described in paragraph (h)(1) of this category, aircraft listed in paragraph (h)(1)(i), (ii), or (iii) of this category, or developmental aircraft described in paragraph (f) of this category: |
| (i) | Scale test models; |
| (ii) | Full-scale iron bird ground rigs used to test major aircraft systems; or |
| (i) | Technical data (see § 120.33 of this subchapter) and defense services (see § 120.32 of this subchapter) directly related to the defense articles described in paragraphs (a) through (h) of this category and classified technical data directly related to items controlled in ECCNs 9A610, 9B610, 9C610, and 9D610 and defense services using classified technical data. (See § 125.4 of this subchapter for exemptions.) (MT for technical data and defense services related to articles designated as such.) |
| (j) | -(w) [Reserved] |
| (x) | Commodities, software, and technology subject to the EAR used in or with defense articles controlled in this category. |
Source: eCFR, version
2026-08-01, retrieved
2026-08-20T04:08:36+00:00.