Global Trade Compliance Atlas

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§ 120.3

Policy on designating or determining defense articles and services on the U.S. Munitions List

ITAR · Part 120 · Subpart A

An article or service may be designated as a defense article or defense service if it provides a critical military or intelligence advantage, or if it is specifically designed, developed, configured, adapted, or modified for a military application, and it does not have predominant civil applications and performance equivalents (defined by form, fit, function, and performance) to those of an article or service used for civil applications. Commodity jurisdiction under § 120.4 is the process used when the status of a particular item is in doubt.

This is the policy test for putting something on the USML, not the day-to-day classification test — classification uses § 120.11 order of review against the current USML text.
Specially designed (§ 120.41) is the workhorse control parameter inside catch-all USML paragraphs.

eCFR (primary) · § 120.3 LII (secondary, unofficial)

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In this atlas

§ 120.2 § 120.4 § 120.41 § 120.42 § 121.1