[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 104 (Monday, June 22, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3021-S3022]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SA 5901. Mr. McCORMICK (for himself and Mr. Fetterman) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 4784, to
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2027 for military activities
of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military
personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which
was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of subtitle D of title XII, add the following:
SEC. 1252. STRATEGY FOR DEPLOYMENT OF UNMANNED AND AUTONOMOUS
SYSTEMS IN INDO-PACIFIC REGION AND WESTERN
HEMISPHERE.
(a) In General.--The Secretary of Defense, in coordination
with the officials specified in subsection (b), shall develop
a strategy for the deployment, employment, integration,
sustainment, exportability, and scaling of unmanned and
autonomous systems in the Indo-Pacific region and the Western
Hemisphere.
(b) Specified Officials.--The officials specified in this
subsection are the following:
(1) The Commander of the United States Indo-Pacific
Command.
(2) The Commander of the United States Southern Command.
(3) The Commander of the United States Northern Command.
(4) The Director of the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group
(or successor organization).
(5) The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
(6) The Secretaries of the military departments.
(7) Any other United States Government official the
Secretary of Defense considers appropriate.
(c) Elements.--The strategy required by subsection (a)
shall include the following:
(1) An assessment of current capability gaps and
operational requirements with respect to the deployment of
unmanned an autonomous systems within the areas of
responsibility of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, the
United States Southern Command, and the United States
Northern Command, including with respect to--
(A) persistent maritime, air, littoral, and undersea domain
awareness;
(B) undersea surveillance and anti-submarine warfare;
(C) long-range strike and attritable systems;
(D) integration of artificial intelligence and decoy
operations;
(E) counter-unmanned systems operations;
(F) logistics and communications relay;
(G) electronic warfare and signals intelligence;
(H) mine detect and defeat; and
(I) Department of Defense missions to terrorism in the
Western Hemisphere, including such missions in support of
maritime interdiction and detection-and-monitoring
operations.
(2) An assessment of the scope of unmanned and autonomous
systems that may be deployed across, air, surface, and
subsurface domains in the Indo-Pacific region and the Western
Hemisphere, including--
[[Page S3022]]
(A) an identification of the scope of systems necessary to
fulfill the operational requirements with respect to the
elements described in each of subparagraphs (A) through (I)
of paragraph (1) for--
(i) unmanned aircraft systems;
(ii) unmanned surface vessels;
(iii) undersea vehicles, including remotely operated and
autonomous such vehicles; and
(iv) unmanned and autonomous systems platform attributes;
(B) the current number of systems available for such
deployment, including remotely operated and autonomous
vehicles necessary to fulfill the operational requirements
described in subparagraphs (A) through (I) of paragraph (1);
and
(C) platform attributes necessary to fulfill the
operational requirements described in subparagraphs (A)
through (I) of paragraph (1), including--
(i) an evaluation of capability for artificial intelligence
integration and autonomy-enabled software;
(ii) operational range, time-on-station, payload capacity,
autonomy levels, and survivability;
(iii) associated launch and recovery systems, control
stations, communications links, sensors, payloads, and
modular mission packages, and other operationally relevant
performance parameters;
(iv) kinetic and non-kinetic mission options; and
(v) an evaluation of the storage, maintenance, training,
and personnel readiness associated with each system
identified.
(3) An identification of prospective basing, staging, and
forward deployment locations for unmanned and autonomous
systems within the areas of responsibility of the United
States Indo-Pacific Command, the United States Southern
Command, and the United States Northern Command, including an
assessment of--
(A) existing United States military installations and their
capacity to support unmanned systems operations and long-term
storage of such systems;
(B) partner country facilities and agreements necessary to
enable forward deployment; and
(C) at-sea and at-sea deployment concepts.
(4) An evaluation of the maturity and demonstrated
operational suitability of endurance-enabling propulsion
technologies, including hybrid-electric propulsion, with
attention to efficiency, reliability, acoustic performance,
and sustainment considerations.
(5) A plan for cross-domain integration of unmanned and
autonomous systems into the broader joint force, including
enhancement of conventional weapon systems, manned platforms,
artificial intelligence systems, and command-and-control
networks.
(6) A summary of ongoing experimentation, prototyping, and
operational demonstrations, including lessons learned from
use by the United States Indo-Pacific Command, the United
States Central Command, and the United States Special
Operations Command.
(7) A plan for co-design, co-development, co-production,
and interoperability of unmanned systems with allies and
partners, with particular emphasis on--
(A) Australia, Israel, Japan, the Republic of Korea,
Taiwan, and Ukraine; and
(B) partners under the Advanced Capabilities pillar of the
AUKUS partnership.
(8) An assessment of adversary unmanned systems
capabilities and counter-unmanned systems threats, and
recommendations for measures to ensure survivability and
mission effectiveness of United States and allied unmanned
systems.
(9) A resource and procurement plan identifying near-term,
mid-term, and long-term investments in unmanned and
autonomous programs required to execute such strategy,
including an identification of programs of record, rapid
acquisition pathways, scalability and manufacturability,
supply-chain vulnerabilities, and commercial off-the-shelf
options.
(10) A plan for addressing supply chain dependencies and
vulnerabilities for UAS, USV, and UUV systems, consistent
with the requirements of the American Security Drone Act of
2023 (Public Law 118-31; 137 Stat. 691; 41 U.S.C. note prec.
3901), as applicable, to ensure that United States military
unmanned systems are not dependent on components manufactured
by entities subject to the influence or control of a covered
foreign entity.
(11) Metrics and milestones for measuring the
implementation and effectiveness of the strategy.
(d) Submission to Congress.--Not later than 180 days after
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of
Defense shall submit to the congressional defense committees
(as defined in section 101 of title 10, United States Code)
the strategy developed under subsection (a).
(e) Briefing.--Not later than 1 year after the date on
which the strategy required by subsection (a) is submitted,
and annually thereafter through 2030, the Secretary of
Defense shall provide the congressional defense committees
with a briefing on--
(1) the status of implementation of the strategy;
(2) any changes in adversary unmanned systems capabilities
or operational behavior that affect the strategy;
(3) progress on allied and partner co-development and
interoperability initiatives;
(4) procurements, deployments, and exercises conducted in
furtherance of the strategy; and
(5) any recommended updates or modifications to the
strategy.
(f) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Covered foreign entity.--The term ``covered foreign
entity'' has the meaning given that term in section 1822 of
the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024
(Public Law 118-31; 10 U.S.C. 4661 note).
(2) Unmanned aircraft system; uas.--The terms ``unmanned
aircraft system'' and ``UAS'' mean an unmanned aircraft and
associated elements, including communication links and the
components that control the unmanned aircraft, in accordance
with section 44801 of title 49, United States Code.
(3) Unmanned undersea vehicle; uuv.--The terms ``unmanned
undersea vehicle'' and ``UUV'' means an unmanned, self-
propelled vehicle that operates below the surface of the
water, including remotely operated vehicles and autonomous
undersea vehicles.
(4) Unmanned surface vehicle; usv.--The terms ``unmanned
surface vehicle'' and ``USV'' means an unmanned, self-
propelled vehicle that operates at the surface of the water,
including remotely operated vehicles and autonomous surface
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