MTCR locks the launch tech
The Missile Technology Control Regime is signed by the G-7 and quietly grows. Cross-border transfer of any meaningful launch or guidance capability becomes a permissioned act, decided in Washington.
A working catalogue entry, kept current. Each paragraph is drawn from the publicly documented record.
The Missile Technology Control Regime is signed in April 1987 by the G-7 (formally entering force in 1988) to restrict the proliferation of unmanned delivery systems capable of carrying a 500 kg payload over 300 km. Because the technology of a space launcher and that of a ballistic missile are largely interchangeable, the MTCR effectively becomes a permissioning system for sovereign launch capability.
It is administered, in practice, from Washington. Forty years on, every emerging launch state must either join the regime under conditions, or build outside it under sanctions — there is no neutral path. India joined in 2016; many others have not.
Each entry is publicly documented. Have a correction or a stronger source? Send it to the editorial team via the contact form.
