[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1265 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1265

 To require the Secretary of Defense to make certain certifications to 
      Congress before retiring B-1, B-2, or B-52 bomber aircraft.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 11, 2015

  Mr. Rounds (for himself, Mr. Hoeven, Ms. Heitkamp, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. 
 Cruz, and Mr. Cassidy) introduced the following bill; which was read 
         twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To require the Secretary of Defense to make certain certifications to 
      Congress before retiring B-1, B-2, or B-52 bomber aircraft.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Long Range Bomber Sustainment Act of 
2015''.

SEC. 2. LIMITATIONS ON RETIREMENT OF B-1, B-2, AND B-52 BOMBER 
              AIRCRAFT.

    No B-1, B-2, or B-52 bomber aircraft may be retired during a fiscal 
year unless the Secretary of Defense certifies, by not later than March 
1 of the preceding fiscal year, that--
            (1) the retirement of the aircraft will not detrimentally 
        affect the capacity of the Armed Forces of the United States to 
        carry out the full range of long range bomber aircraft missions 
        anticipated in operational plans of the Armed Forces in effect 
        as of the date of the submission of that certification;
            (2) the Secretary has completed assessments of--
                    (A) planning scenarios that span the range of 
                plausible future challenges for such aircraft; and
                    (B) the severity, likelihood, and imminence of risk 
                associated with each such planning scenario;
            (3) the Secretary has concluded, based on the assessments 
        referred to in paragraph (2), that retirements of B-1, B-2, and 
        B-52 bomber aircraft in the near term will not detrimentally 
        affect operational capability; and
            (4) the Secretary has developed a plan to replace any 
        operational capability lost as a result of the retirement of 
        such bomber aircraft.
                                 <all>