Unmanned and Autonomous Systems Strategy Act of 2026

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.

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 Commandant of the Coast Guard.

(5) The head of the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group.

(6) The Secretary of State.

(7) The Secretary of Homeland Security.

(8) The Secretaries of the military departments.

(9) Any other United States Government official the Secretary of Defense considers appropriate.

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 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 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 collection;

(H) mine detect and defeat; and

(I) United States homeland security missions to counter narcotics, trafficking, and transnational criminal organizations 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—

(A) an identification of—

(i) unmanned aircraft systems;

(ii) small, medium, large, and extra-large unmanned surface vessels;

(iii) undersea vehicles, including remotely operated and autonomous such vehicles; and

(iv) unmanned and autonomous systems platform attributes;

(B) the numbers of unmanned and autonomous systems, unmanned undersea vehicles available for such deployment, including remotely operated and autonomous vehicles; and

(C) for each system identified under subparagraph (A)—

(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; and

(iii) associated launch and recovery systems, control stations, communications links, sensors, payloads, and modular mission packages, and other operationally relevant performance parameters.

(3) An identification of prospective basing, staging, and forward deployment locations for UAS and UUV 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 submarine-launched 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 UAS and UUV 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 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 UAS and UUV 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 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.

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).

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.

In this section:

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).

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.

The terms unmanned undersea vehicle and UUV mean an unmanned, self-propelled vehicle that operates below the surface of the water, including remotely operated vehicles and autonomous undersea vehicles.