China's dual use curbs cut US infrared sensor shipments and quadrupled some prices
China's June 2025 dual use export curbs cut US infrared sensor shipments by an estimated 60 percent and pushed module prices from about 400 to over 1,500 dollars, per industry reporting. These sensors sit in night vision, thermal cameras and missile seekers.
Export controls do not only hit headline chips. They reach into the narrow parts that make sensors work. After China tightened dual use export controls in June 2025, infrared sensor shipments to the United States dropped by an estimated 60 percent, and module prices climbed from around 400 dollars to over 1,500 dollars, according to industry reporting. Infrared sensors sit inside night vision, missile seekers, thermal cameras and industrial inspection tools. The root cause traces back to compound semiconductors. Gallium based chips such as GaAs and GaN handle high frequency signals, laser diodes and photodetectors, and the refined gallium behind them comes overwhelmingly from China. The consequence lands on both defense and industry. When a single input triples or quadruples in price, the systems built on it get more expensive and slower to field, well before any finished weapon or camera is affected.