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Special Relationship Military Improvement Act of 2025
To amend the Arms Export Control Act to provide to the United Kingdom an exemption for licensing of defense items for export in the absence of a relevant bilateral agreement.
Summary
This bill amends the Arms Export Control Act to exempt the United Kingdom from licensing requirements for the export of U.S. defense items. Currently, defense exports typically require a bilateral agreement; the bill removes this requirement for the UK. The bill also codifies an existing defense cooperation treaty with Australia and specifies carve-outs that remain subject to licensing controls, including certain missile systems, biological and chemical agents, and nuclear weapons-related items. These provisions streamline defense trade with the UK and Australia while maintaining export controls on sensitive defense technologies.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Rep. Green, Mark E. [R-TN-7] (R-TN)
Actions (2)
- Jun 6, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. · house
- Jun 6, 2025 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Text versions (1)
Bills are re-published as they move (Introduced → Reported → Engrossed → Enrolled …). Each stage below is a separate text; pick two to see what changed. Data from Congress.gov.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
June 6, 2025
Mr. Green of Tennessee introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
A BILL
To amend the Arms Export Control Act to provide to the United Kingdom an exemption for licensing of defense items for export in the absence of a relevant bilateral agreement.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Special Relationship Military Improvement Act of 2025”.
SEC. 2. EXEMPTION.
Section 38 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2778) is amended—
(1) in subsection (f)(3), by inserting “or the United Kingdom” after “Canada”; and
(2) in subsection (j)(1), by striking subparagraph (C) and inserting after subparagraph (B) the following new subparagraphs:
“(C) Exception for the united kingdom.—The requirement to conclude a bilateral agreement in accordance with subparagraph (A) shall not apply with respect to an exemption for the United Kingdom from the licensing requirements of this chapter for the export of defense items.
“(D) Exception for defense cooperation treaties.— The requirement to conclude a bilateral agreement in accordance with subparagraph (A) shall not apply with respect to an exemption from the licensing requirements of this chapter for the export of defense items to give effect to the Treaty Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Australia Concerning Defense Trade Cooperation, done at Sydney September 5, 2007 (and any implementing arrangement thereto), except that the United States shall exempt from the scope of such treaty—
“(i) complete rocket systems (including ballistic missile systems, space launch vehicles, and sounding rockets) or complete unmanned aerial vehicle systems (including cruise missile systems, target drones, and reconnaissance drones) capable of delivering at least a 500 kilogram payload to a range of 300 kilometers, and associated production facilities, software, or technology for these systems, as defined in the Missile Technology Control Regime Annex Category I, Item 1;
“(ii) individual rocket stages, re-entry vehicles and equipment, solid or liquid propellant motors or engines, guidance sets, thrust vector control systems, and associated production facilities, software, and technology, as defined in the Missile Technology Control Regime Annex Category I, Item 2;
“(iii) defense articles and defense services listed in the Missile Technology Control Regime Annex Category II that are for use in rocket systems, as that term is used in such Annex, including associated production facilities, software, or technology;
“(iv) toxicological agents, biological agents, and associated equipment, as listed in the United States Munitions List (part 121.1 of chapter I of title 22, Code of Federal Regulations), Category XIV, subcategories (a),
(b), (f)(1), (i), (j) as it pertains to (f)(1),
(l) as it pertains to (f)(1), and (m) as it pertains to all of the subcategories cited in this paragraph;
“(v) defense articles and defense services specific to the design and testing of nuclear weapons which are controlled under United States Munitions List Category XVI(a) and (b), along with associated defense articles in Category XVI(d) and technology in Category XVI(e); and
“(vi) defense articles for which Australian laws, regulations, or other commitments would prevent Australia from enforcing the control measures specified in such treaty.”. <all>
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