Tacoma-based Service Steel Aerospace Corp. recently agreed to pay a $12,000 fine to the Bureau of Industry and Security arising out of exports of titanium rods to Israel and Mexico. The company had voluntarily disclosed to BIS that it had made three exports of the titanium rods valued at $12,937

Titanium alloys are controlled under ECCN 1C202 if the alloy is capable of an ultimate tensile strength of 900 MPa or more at 293 K (20 °C) and is in the form of a tube or cylindrical solid forms with an outside diameter exceeding 75 millimeters. The high tensile strength at high temperatures makes titanium suitable for aerospace use including, especially, missiles.

Another use for titanium, probably unrelated to its reason for control, is in the spookily named “Rods from God,” a sort of space-edge Sword of Damocles that would hurl titanium rods at the earth from a space satellite. The rods would hit the earth at 7500 miles per hour. Allegedly this would be equivalent of a small nuclear weapon. I am in no position to judge that claim but it certainly seems that this device would be somewhat more destructive than a penny hurled from the observation deck of the Empire State Building.

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