MISSILE TECHNOLOGY CONTROL REGIME (MTCR): "RISK

C O N F I D E N T I A L STATE 109138

SIPDIS
PARIS FOR EST: HELEN SMITH
LONDON FOR CHRIS PALMER
CANBERRA FOR CAROL HANLON

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/10/2033
TAGS: MTCRE ETTC KSCA MNUC PARM TSPA FR UK AS
SUBJECT: MISSILE TECHNOLOGY CONTROL REGIME (MTCR): "RISK
(UNCONTROLLED) TECHNOLOGIES USEFUL TO BALLISTIC MISSILE
PROGRAMS"

Classified By: ISN/MTR DIRECTOR PAM DURHAM FOR REASONS 1.4 (B),
(D),(H).


1. (U) This is an action request. Please see
paragraph 2.


2. (C) ACTION REQUEST: Department requests Embassy
Paris provide the interagency cleared paper "Risk
(Uncontrolled) Technologies Useful to Ballistic
Missile Programs" in paragraph 3 below to the French
Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) Point of
Contact (POC) for distribution to all Partners.
Department also requests Embassy London provide
paper to the MTCR Information Exchange (IE) Co-Chair
(John Andrews),and Embassy Canberra provide paper
to the Australian MTCR Plenary Chair for 2008/2009
and/or appropriate staff. Info addressees also may
provide to host government officials as appropriate.
In delivering paper, posts should indicate that the
U.S. is sharing this paper as part of our
preparation for the Information Exchange that will
be held in conjunction with the MTCR Plenary in
Canberra (November 3-7). NOTE: Additional IE
papers will be provided via septels. END NOTE.


3. BEGIN TEXT OF PAPER:

CONFIDENTIAL//REL MTCR

Risk (Uncontrolled) Technologies Useful to Ballistic
Missile Programs

Changes to technologies for the development and
manufacture of missiles require us to think about
how they may impact Missile Technology Control
Regime (MTCR) controls. Some of these changes have
been subtle, relying on improvements or innovations
to materials or methods of manufacture, while others
have been more dramatic. As technological advances
occur, and advanced materials and products become
more commercially available, MTCR Partners need to
take steps to ensure that the Regime keeps pace with
new technologies and changes in proliferant
procurement.

Fiber Placement Machines

Fiber placement machines are becoming more widely
used for the manufacture of large-scale, complex
composite structures. These structures which
utilize a fiber and resin matrix, or prepreg
material, offer lighter weight with equivalent or
greater strength than metals. It is clear that
while fiber placement machines can and do perform
the same tasks as a filament winding machine, they
are technically not filament winding machines.

Fiber placement machines do not use the same technology
as filament winding machines. Fiber placement machines
are similar to filament winding machines, but they do
not rely on a rotating mandrel for fiber placement.
Individual tows (groups of multiple fibers) are fed
through a heating section and tensioning system to the
placement head, which is controlled by computer
numerical control (CNC). Depending on the number of
axes (degrees of freedom),the placement head is
indexed along the material placement path, while feed
motors dispense the individual heated tows into
position. A pressure roller also follows the placement
path, thereby compacting the fibers into place. Both
fiber placement machines and filament winding machines
can be used to produce missile components such as
rocket motor cases and propellant tanks.

Item 6.B.1.a of the MTCR Annex currently controls
filament winding machines that meet specified
parameters. Due to the different name and technical
differences in how the equipment operates, an exporter
could argue that 6.B.1.a does not apply to fiber
placement machines. The U.S. recently evaluated this
control and discovered a potential loophole in the
control text.

Composite Fiber

Item 6.C.1. of the MTCR Annex currently controls
resin impregnated fiber (prepreg material) that
meets certain criteria for tensile strength and
modulus.

While prepreg materials are commonly used in the
fabrication of components for ballistic missile
systems, they are not exclusively used. In cases
where a dry fiber is used along with a resin bath at
application the MTCR Annex would not control the dry
fiber, regardless of strength or modulus. Dry fiber
can be processed locally to manufacture prepreg
materials prior to use, or the fiber can be used in
a wet-wound process as described above. Carbon,
glass, and aramid fibers that could have a missile
application are controlled by either the Nuclear
Suppliers Group and/or the Wassenaar. In view of
their missile applications, Partners should give
consideration to whether controls on composite
fibers would prevent proliferators from utilizing a
potential loophole in the current regime.
Additionally, when conducting their risk assessments
on licenses for export of dry fiber, Partners should
use catch-all controls or other existing national
authorities to prevent exports of concern.

Pyrotechnically Controlled Valves

Pyrotechnic valves are single-use, high-reliability
valves that are used to positively initiate or
terminate the flow in liquid and gas systems. These
valves are a well-known and well-used technology
throughout the world and are predominantly used in the
military aerospace industry. Virtually all liquid-
propellant and some solid-propellant ballistic missile
systems use pyrotechnic valves to initiate or terminate
the flow of propellants and/or pressurant gases.
Further, only a few manufacturers of these types of
valves exist in the world, as they require precision
manufacture and tight control of material properties in
order to achieve the high reliability. Export control
of pyrotechnic valves usable in Item 1 or Item 19
missiles could therefore hamper or slow production of
ballistic missile systems in the developing world.

Other military uses include air-to-air, air-to-ground,
and surface-to-air missiles as well as some use on
military aircraft. Commercial or industrial uses of
pyrotechnic valves may include fire suppression systems
or some safety systems in the chemical industries.
Commercial and industrial valves are not aerospace
rated and tend to have much higher inlet diameter to
weight ratios, operate in lower acceleration and
vibration environments, and/or possess significantly
lower pressure ratings.

Optical Fiber Winding Equipment Intended for the
Production of Fiber Optic Gyroscopes

The last two decades have seen the transition of Fiber
Optic Gyroscope (FOG) technology progress from
laboratory-grade engineering models into mainstream
commercial, military, and aerospace applications. FOGs
have many advantages over spinning mechanical
gyroscopes: they are solid-state (no moving parts),
have low power consumption, provide data at moment of
turn-on, do not require heaters, have high angular rate
capability suitable for strapdown applications, and are
relatively insensitive to acceleration-induced errors.
FOGs also offer advantages over competing optical
sensor technologies such as Ring Laser Gyros (RLGs).
The precision machining, polishing, high-technology
clean rooms, laser gas filling/sealing operations, and
mirror manufacture required for RLG fabrication comes
at a price of substantial capital equipment costs. By
comparison, FOGs are typically assembled in a standard
laboratory environment with tools and equipment
commonly used in the telecommunications industry for
processing optical fiber and electro-optical
assemblies.

Item 9.B of the MTCR Annex currently regulates test and
production equipment related to mechanical gyroscopes
and RLGs but nothing specific to FOGs. The inherent
dual-use nature of most FOG fabrication equipment has
made the prospect of export control of this technology
a daunting task.

The export control of optical fiber winding machines,
specially designed for the production of FOGs, is an
area for consideration by the Partners. These
specialized machines are one of the few tools used in
the manufacture of FOGs that are not commonly found in
telecommunications applications. One of the major
components of every interferometric fiber optic
gyroscope is a spool that is wound with hundreds- to
thousands of meters of optical fiber. The process of
winding a navigation-grade FOG spool is very complex
and requires that the optical fiber be laid out in
specific deterministic patterns with exacting control
of parameters such as fiber tension, layer sequence and
count, geometry, and cross-over techniques. These
process complications are required in order to reduce
gyro performance errors that occur when small stresses
are formed within the fiber coil. One effective design
used by FOG manufacturers is commonly known as the
"quadrupole" pattern of fiber laying but various other
proprietary patterns are also possible. Optical fiber
winding equipment suitable for FOG production is highly
specialized and only used for this singular purpose.
Proper control of optical fiber winding machines could
help limit the proliferation of this emergent
technology for use in WMD-capable missile systems.


4. (U) Please slug any reporting on this or other MTCR
issues for ISN/MTR. A word version of this document
will be posted at www.state.sgov.gov/demarche.
RICE