Defense Quantum Acceleration Act of 2024

The Secretary of Defense shall establish a set of activities to accelerate the adoption and implementation quantum information science (hereafter referred to QIS) technology within the Department of Defense.

Pursuant to the activities established under paragraph (1), the Secretary, acting through the Principal Quantum Advisor designated under subsection (b), shall—

(A) explore and identify QIS technologies that—

(i) have demonstrated value in advancing the priorities and missions of the Department; and

(ii) may be applied to address operational problems;

(B) develop plans to transition such QIS technologies from the research and development phase to operational use within the Department, including within each of the Armed Forces; and

(C) carry out such transition plans.

Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall designate a senior official of the Department of Defense to serve as the Principal Quantum Advisor for the Department.

The Principal Quantum Advisor shall serve as the official within the Department of Defense with principal responsibility for—

(A) coordinating activities relating to the accelerated demonstration and transition of QIS technologies for applications specific to operational challenges faced by the Department;

(B) coordinating, overseeing, and managing the set of activities established under subsection (a);

(C) carrying out the activities described in paragraphs (3) through (6); and

(D) carrying out such other duties related to the development and implementation of QIS technologies as the Secretary may direct.

The Principal Quantum Advisor shall—

(i) identify operational challenges faced by the Department of Defense that have the potential to be addressed through the use of QIS-technology based solutions, including solutions based on the QIS technology areas described subparagraph (C);

(ii) for each such challenge, determine if the implementation of a QIS technology-based solution has the potential to be significantly more effective at addressing such challenge compared to a non-QIS technology-based solution, taking into account the technology and manufacturing readiness level of the QIS technology-based solution;

(iii) for each potential QIS technology-based solution identified under clause (ii), evaluate and determine the technology and manufacturing readiness level of the solution taking into account the current readiness level of such solution—

(I) within the Department;

(II) among other departments and agencies of the Federal Government;

(III) among Five Eyes countries; and

(IV) within academia and industry.

(iv) for each QIS technology-based solution determined under clause (iii) to have a technology and manufacturing readiness level of 5 or higher, begin prototyping and evaluation activities of such solution at scale in operationally relevant environments by not later than the end of fiscal year 2025; and

(v) for each QIS technology-based solution determined under clause (iii) to have a technology and manufacturing readiness level of 4 or lower, submit to Congress a plan for funding such solution over the period of five fiscal years following the date of the report using research, development, test, and evaluation funds designated as budget activity 1 (basic research), budget activity 2 (applied research), budget activity 3 (advanced technology development), or budget activity 4 (advanced component development and prototypes) as those budget activity classifications are set forth in volume 2B, chapter 5 of the Department of Defense Financial Management Regulation (DOD 7000.14–R).

In carrying out this paragraph, the Principal Quantum Advisor shall coordinate with and seek input from the Armed Forces and unified combatant commands—

(i) to identify and better understand the operational requirements of such Armed Forces and commands; and

(ii) to ensure that the timeline for transitioning any QIS technology-based capability to operational use within the Armed Forces and combatant commands aligns with—

(I) the plans of such Forces and commands across the period covered by the future-years defense program; and

(II) the program objective memorandum processes for such Forces and commands.

The QIS technology areas described in this subparagraph are the following:

(i) Quantum sensing, including—

(I) alternative precision navigation and timing;

(II) undersea or underground detection;

(III) advanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance quantum imaging techniques; and

(IV) biomedical and health care.

(ii) Quantum computing, including—

(I) annealing;

(II) quantum-enabled machine learning;

(III) simulation and optimization; and

(IV) integrating quantum and classical computing.

(iii) Quantum annealing.

(iv) Quantum Communications and networking.

(v) Quantum-enabled modeling and simulation.

(vi) Hybrid quantum computing and the integration of quantum and classical computing components.

The Principal Quantum Advisor shall—

(A) use the flexibility of regulations, personnel, acquisition, partnerships with industry and academia, or other relevant policies of the Department to accelerate the transition and fielding of QIS technologies;

(B) ensure engagement with combatant commands, defense and private industries, research universities, and unaffiliated, nonprofit research institutions on matters relating such QIS technologies; and

(C) provide technical advice and support organizations and elements of the Department of Defense, including the Armed Forces, to optimize the use of QIS technologies to meet mission requirements.

The Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, shall ensure that the Principal Quantum Advisor is included in the activities of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium established under section 201(b) of the National Quantum Initiative Act (Public Law 115–368; 15 U.S.C. 8831(b)).

On a quarterly basis, the Principal Quantum Advisor shall conduct outreach and engagement with industry and academic leaders—

(i) to educate organizations in the QIS industrial base on national security QIS use cases and operational challenges faced by the Department that have the potential to be addressed through the use of QIS technology-based solutions as described in paragraph (3);

(ii) to the extent determined appropriate by the Principal Quantum Advisor, provide industry with the opportunity to identify QIS technology-based solutions to operational challenges faced by the Department;

(iii) educate organizations in the Defense industrial base on near-term and commercially available QIS technology-based solutions that provide operationally relevant warfighting capabilities;

(iv) advance relevant QIS supply chains and manufacturing capabilities within the United States and among allies and partners of the United States; and

(v) facilitate the commercialization of QIS technology-based solutions developed by the research and engineering organizations of the Department of Defense for purposes of prototyping and transitioning such technologies into operational use.

Based on the QIS use cases identified under paragraph (3)(A)(ii), the Principal Quantum Advisor shall—

(i) identify areas in which the United Kingdom and Australia, pursuant to Pillar II the partnership among Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States (commonly known as AUKUS) are pursuing technology aligned with such use cases; and

(ii) align Department research and development and procurement funding in relation to QIS technologies on accelerating opportunities where Australia and the United Kingdom are pursuing such technologies.

The Principal Quantum Advisor shall organize—

(i) a recurring multilateral meeting of quantum technology experts from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia to facilitate information-sharing and planning relevant to QIS technology and defense-specific use cases for such technology; and

(ii) a recurring multilateral meeting of quantum technology experts from member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to facilitate such information-sharing and planning.

The Secretary of Defense shall develop strategic plan to guide the development, assessment, procurement, and implementation of QIS technologies within the Department of Defense over the period of five years following the date of the plan.

The plan required under paragraph (1) shall include the following:

(A) Plans for the continuous evaluation, development, and implementation of QIS technology solutions within the Department.

(B) Plans for the development, review, performance evaluation, and adoption of a fault-tolerant, utility-scale quantum computer and the transition of that capability to appropriate organizations and elements of the Department of Defense, including the Armed Forces, and such other departments and agencies of the Federal Government as the Secretary determines appropriate.

(C) Plans for allocating the resources of the Department to ensure such resources are focused on QIS technologies with the potential to solve operational challenges.

(D) Identification of QIS technologies that—

(i) have critical defense-specific applications;

(ii) cannot be adapted from commercially available QIS technology; and

(iii) are unlikely to be pursued or accelerated by industry because of limited commercial value.

(E) Plans for supporting the development of capabilities identified under subparagraph (D).

(F) An assessment of the QIS supply chain, including assessment of—

(i) any associated strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats; and

(ii) critical components, suppliers, and single points of failure.

Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to Congress a report that includes the plan developed under paragraph (1).

The Secretary of Defense shall adopt a comprehensive security strategy for commercially developed capabilities based on the guide utilized in the Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing program of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of Energy, shall establish a national defense quantum information science joint center of excellence (referred to in this section as the Center).

The Center shall be operated by the Secretary of Defense and shall include participation from the following organizations:

(A) One or more research laboratories of the Armed Forces.

(B) A Department of Energy national laboratory.

(C) A federally funded research and development center or a university-affiliated research center.

The Secretary shall establish the Center at a location in the United States that is reasonably accessible to each organization described in paragraph (2).

The Center shall carry out the following activities:

(A) Facilitate QIS technology transition and workforce development activities.

(B) Conduct outreach to enhance industry and academia’s understanding of national security QIS technology use cases and current operational challenges faced by the Department.

(C) Prototype QIS technologies, with priority given to the prototyping and transition of QIS-enabled position, navigation, and timing efforts and quantum sensors at technology readiness level six or higher.

(D) Integrate the prototyping activities under subparagraph (C) with the needs of the unified combatant commands.

(E) Accelerate the transition of advanced QIS technology from the research and development phase into operational use.

(F) Expand the QIS workforce of the United States and the QIS workforces of nations that are allies and partners of the United States.

The Secretary may make grants and enter into contracts and other agreements, on a competitive basis, to support the activities of the Center.

There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this subsection $20,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029.

Not later than one year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall seek to increase opportunities for the study of QIS within—

(A) the military service academies.

(B) the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps; and

(C) other institutions and programs of the Department of Defense and the Armed Forces that provide postsecondary and graduate level education.

The Secretary of Defense shall direct the chief of each Armed Force, in consultation with the heads of the research laboratories under the jurisdiction of such Armed Force—

(A) to adopt internal standard operating procedures for QIS workforce development to monitor and evaluate progress toward human capital goals and human capital programmatic results; and

(B) to involve top management, employees, and other stakeholders in QIS workforce planning by—

(i) developing and implementing an enterprise-wide strategic quantum workforce plan; and

(ii) communicating quantum workforce goals, initiatives, and metrics for evaluating success throughout each laboratory.

The Secretary of Defense, acting through the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), shall require the Secretaries of the military departments and the heads of the Defense Agencies with responsibilities associated with any QIS activity to transmit the proposed budget for such activities for a fiscal year and for the period covered by the future-years defense program submitted to Congress under section 221 of title 10, United States Code, for that fiscal year to the Principal Quantum Advisor for review before submitting the proposed budget to the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller).

The Principal Quantum Advisor shall review each proposed budget transmitted, and, not later than January 31 of the year preceding the fiscal year for which the budget is proposed, shall submit to the Secretary of Defense a report containing the comments of the Principal Quantum Advisor with respect to all such proposed budgets, together with the certification of the Principal Quantum Advisor regarding whether each proposed budget is adequate.

Not later than March 31 of each year, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to Congress a report specifying each proposed budget that the Principal Quantum Advisor did not certify to be adequate. The report of the Secretary shall include the following matters:

(A) A discussion of the actions that the Secretary proposes to take, together with any recommended legislation that the Secretary considers appropriate, to address the inadequacy of the proposed budgets specified in the report.

(B) Any additional comments that the Secretary considers appropriate regarding the inadequacy of the proposed budgets.

In this section:

(1) The term Five Eyes countries means the following:

(A) Australia.

(B) Canada.

(C) New Zealand.

(D) The United Kingdom.

(E) The United States.

(2) The term quantum information science or QIS means the use of the laws of quantum physics for the storage, transmission, manipulation, computing, or measurement of information.