Trump eases controls on armed drone exports

The Trump administration moved Friday to ease controls on exports of armed drones, saying that allies need US technology and that other countries outside of a non-proliferation pact were taking over the market. The White House announced that President Donald Trump had approved a move to diverge partly from the 1987 Missile Technology Control Regime, in which 35 countries agreed to restrict the sales of unmanned weapons delivery systems.  The MTCR was aimed at controlling the spread of missiles that could deliver large payload like nuclear weapons. But it also covered armed drones, at the time not a major component of armed conflict as they are now.