Category XIII
Materials and Miscellaneous Articles
Paragraphs marked SME are Significant Military Equipment.
| Paragraph | Text |
|---|---|
| (a) | [Reserved] |
| (b) | Information security or information assurance systems and equipment, cryptographic devices, software, and components, as follows: |
| (1) | Military or intelligence cryptographic (including key management) systems, equipment, assemblies, modules, integrated circuits, components, and software (including their cryptographic interfaces) capable of maintaining secrecy or confidentiality of information or information systems, including equipment or software for tracking, telemetry, and control (TT&C) encryption and decryption; |
| (2) | Military or intelligence cryptographic (including key management) systems, equipment, assemblies, modules, integrated circuits, components, and software (including their cryptographic interfaces) capable of generating spreading or hopping codes for spread spectrum systems or equipment; |
| (3) | Military or intelligence cryptanalytic systems, equipment, assemblies, modules, integrated circuits, components and software; |
| (4) | Military or intelligence systems, equipment, assemblies, modules, integrated circuits, components, or software (including all previous or derived versions) authorized to control access to or transfer data between different security domains as listed on the National Cross Domain Strategy and Management Office (NCDSMO) Control List (UCL); or |
| (5) | Ancillary equipment specially designed for the articles in paragraphs (b)(1)-(b)(4) of this category. |
| (c) | [Reserved] |
| (d) | Materials, as follows: |
| (1) | Ablative materials fabricated or semi-fabricated from advanced composites (e.g., silica, graphite, carbon, carbon/carbon, and boron filaments) specially designed for the articles in USML Category IV or XV (MT if usable for nozzles, re-entry vehicles, nose tips, or nozzle flaps usable in rockets, space launch vehicles (SLVs), or missiles capable of achieving a range greater than or equal to 300 km); or SME |
| (2) | Carbon/carbon billets and preforms that are reinforced with continuous unidirectional fibers, tows, tapes, or woven cloths in three or more dimensional planes (MT if designed for rocket, SLV, or missile systems and usable in rockets, SLVs, or missiles capable of achieving a range greater than or equal to 300 km). |
| (e) | Armor (e.g., organic, ceramic, metallic) and armor materials, as follows: |
| (1) | Spaced armor with Em greater than 1.4 and meeting NIJ RF1 or better; |
| (2) | Transparent armor with areal density less than or equal to 40 pounds per square foot (≤40 lb/ft 2), having either: |
| (i) | Em greater than or equal to 1.3 (Em ≥1.3); or |
| (ii) | Em less than 1.3 (Em <1.3) and meeting or exceeding NIJ RF1 standards; |
| (3) | Transparent ceramic plate greater than 1/4 inch-thick and larger than 8 inches × 8 inches, excluding glass, for transparent armor; |
| (4) | Non-transparent ceramic plate or blanks, greater than 1/4 inches thick and larger than 8 inches × 8 inches for transparent armor. This includes spinel and aluminum oxynitride (ALON); |
| (5) | Composite armor with Em greater than 1.4 and meeting or exceeding NIJ RF1; |
| (6) | Metal laminate armor with Em greater than 1.4 and meeting or exceeding NIJ RF1; or |
| (7) | Developmental armor funded by the Department of Defense via contract or other funding authorization. |
| (f) | Any article enumerated in this category that (MT for those articles designated as such): 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 |
| (g) | Concealment and deception equipment, as follows (MT for applications usable for rockets, SLVs, missiles, drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) capable of achieving a range greater than or equal to 300 km and their subsystems. See note to paragraph (d) of this category): SME |
| (1) | Polymers loaded with carbonyl iron powder, ferrites, iron whiskers, fibers, flakes, or other magnetic additives having a surface resistivity of less than 5000 ohms/square and greater than 10 ohms/square with electrical isotropy of less than 5%; |
| (2) | Multi-layer camouflage systems specially designed to reduce detection of platforms or equipment in the infrared or ultraviolet frequency spectrums; |
| (3) | High temperature (greater than 300 °F operation) ceramic or magnetic radar absorbing material (RAM) specially designed for use on defense articles or military items subject to the EAR; or |
| (4) | Broadband (greater than 30% bandwidth) lightweight (less than 2 lbs/sq ft) magnetic radar absorbing material (RAM) specially designed for use on defense articles or military items subject to the EAR. |
| (h) | Energy conversion devices not otherwise enumerated in this subchapter, as follows: |
| (1) | Fuel cells specially designed for platforms or soldier systems specified in this subchapter; |
| (2) | Thermal engines specially designed for platforms or soldier systems specified in this subchapter; |
| (3) | Thermal batteries (MT if designed or modified for rockets, SLVs, missiles, drones, or UAVs capable of achieving a range equal to or greater than 300 km. See note to paragraph (d) of this category); or |
| (4) | Thermionic generators specially designed for platforms or soldier systems enumerated in this subchapter. |
| (i) | Signature reduction software, and technical data as follows (MT for software specially designed for reduced observables, for applications usable for rockets, SLVs, missiles, drones, or UAVs capable of achieving a range (see note to paragraph (d) of this category) greater than or equal to 300 km, and their subsystems, including software specially designed for analysis of signature reduction; MT for technical data for the development, production, or use of equipment, materials, or software designated as such, including databases specially designed for analysis of signature reduction): SME |
| (1) | Software associated with the measurement or modification of system signatures for defense articles to reduce detectability or observability; |
| (2) | Software for design of low-observable platforms; |
| (3) | Software for design, analysis, prediction, or optimization of signature management solutions for defense articles; |
| (4) | Infrared signature measurement or prediction software for defense articles or radar cross section measurement or prediction software; |
| (5) | Signature management technical data, including codes and algorithms for defense articles to reduce detectability or observability; |
| (6) | Signature control design methodology (see § 120.43(c) of this subchapter) for defense articles to reduce detectability or observability; |
| (7) | Technical data for use of micro-encapsulation or micro-spheres to reduce infrared, radar, or visual detection of platforms or equipment; |
| (8) | Multi-layer camouflage system technical data for reducing detection of platforms or equipment; |
| (9) | Multi-spectral surface treatment technical data for modifying infrared, visual or radio frequency signatures of platforms or equipment; |
| (10) | Technical data for modifying visual, electro-optical, radiofrequency, electric, magnetic, electromagnetic, or wake signatures (e.g., low probability of intercept (LPI) techniques, methods or applications) of defense platforms or equipment through shaping, active, or passive techniques; or |
| (11) | Technical data for modifying acoustic signatures of defense platforms or equipment through shaping, active, or passive techniques. |
| (j) | Equipment, materials, coatings, treatments, and fluids not elsewhere specified in this section, as follows: |
| (1) | Specially treated or formulated dyes, coatings, and fabrics used in the design, manufacture, or production of personnel protective clothing, equipment, or face paints designed to protect against or reduce detection by radar, infrared, or other sensors at wavelengths greater than 900 nanometers (see USML Category X(a)(2)); |
| (2) | Equipment, materials, coatings, and treatments that are specially designed to modify the electro-optical, radiofrequency, infrared, electric, laser, magnetic, electromagnetic, acoustic, electro-static, or wake signatures of defense articles or 600 series items subject to the EAR through control of absorption, reflection, or emission to reduce detectability or observability (MT for applications usable for rockets, SLVs, missiles, drones, or UAVs capable of achieving a range greater than or equal to 300 km, and their subsystems. See note to paragraph (d) of this category); or SME |
| (3) | Fluids, including greases, specially designed for any of the following: |
| (i) | Aircraft listed in USML Category VIII(h)(1)(i), (ii), or (iii); |
| (ii) | Coatings described in USML Category XIV(f)(7); |
| (iv) | Articles described in USML Category XVIII (Directed Energy Weapons) or XX (Submersible Vessels and Related Articles). |
| (k) | Tooling and equipment, as follows: SME |
| (1) | Tooling and equipment specially designed for production of low observable (LO) components; or |
| (2) | Portable platform signature field repair validation equipment (e.g., portable optical interrogator that validates integrity of a repair to a signature reduction structure). |
| (l) | Technical data (see § 120.33 of this subchapter) directly related to the defense articles described in paragraphs (a) through (h), (j), and (k) of this category and defense services (see § 120.32 of this subchapter) directly related to the defense articles described in this category (see also § 120.5(c) of this subchapter for nuclear related controls). (MT for technical data and defense services related to articles designated as such.) |
| (m) | The following interpretations explain and amplify terms used in this category and elsewhere in this subchapter: |
| (1) | Composite armor is defined as having more than one layer of different materials or a matrix. |
| (2) | Spaced armors are metallic or non-metallic armors that incorporate an air space or obliquity or discontinuous material path effects as part of the defeat mechanism. |
| (3) | Reactive armor employs explosives, propellants, or other materials between plates for the purpose of enhancing plate motion during a ballistic event or otherwise defeating the penetrator. |
| (4) | Electromagnetic armor (EMA) employs electricity to defeat threats such as shaped charges. |
| (5) | Materials used in composite armor could include layers of metals, plastics, elastomers, fibers, glass, ceramics, ceramic-glass reinforced plastic laminates, encapsulated ceramics in a metallic or non-metallic matrix, functionally gradient ceramic-metal materials, or ceramic balls in a cast metal matrix. |
| (6) | For this category, a material is considered transparent if it allows 75% or greater transmission of light, corrected for index of refraction, in the visible spectrum through a 1 mm thick nominal sample. |
| (7) | The material controlled in paragraph (e)(4) of this category has not been treated to reach the 75% transmission level referenced in (m)(6) of this category. |
| (8) | Metal laminate armors are two or more layers of metallic materials which are mechanically or adhesively bonded together to form an armor system. |
| (9) | Em is the line-of-sight target mass effectiveness ratio and provides a measure of the tested armor's performance to that of rolled homogenous armor, where Em is defined as follows: |
| (10) | NIJ is the National Institute of Justice and RF1 refers to the requirements specified in NIJ standard 0123.00, Specification for NIJ Ballistic Protection Levels and Associated Test Threats. |
| (n) | -(w) [Reserved] |
| (x) | Commodities, software, and technical data subject to the EAR used in or with defense articles. |
Source: eCFR, version
2026-08-01, retrieved
2026-08-20T04:08:36+00:00.