The State Department has fined RTX (Raytheon) $200 million after announcing that it violated regulations on the export of US defence technology.

The settlement will cover 750 violations of the Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).

A large number of the breaches appear to have involved employees who traveled abroad, to countries such as Russia and Iran, and brought company laptops with them, which contained a wealth of data related to sensitive US military programs such as the Aegis system, the B-2 Spirit bomber, the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet fighter, and the fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter.

A typical example of the “unintentional” export of sensitive data was a trip in May and June 2021 to St. Petersburg, Russia, where an employee carried the company’s laptop, which contained ITAR-controlled technical data related to at least five military aircraft, such as the AWAC E-3 Sentry.

Another employee traveled to Iran and tried to log into his computer while there. The laptop’s internal drive contained technical data for both the B-2 Spirit bomber and the F-22 Raptor fighter.

A third incident involved an employee who repeatedly visited Lebanon. The Raytheon employee’s laptop contained technical information about the Standard Missile-3, Standard Missile-6 and ESSM missiles.

The U.S. government reviewed copies of the files cited in this report and determined that the unauthorized export of technical data harmed U.S. national security, the State Department said in a statement.

In other words, Raytheon failed to properly protect data related to US equipment, such as fighter jets and missile systems, from competitors China, Russia, and Iran.

Also read: DECC | The military fintech solution provider