H.R. 4344

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4344 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 4344

To direct the Secretary of the Air Force to carry out a capability 
demonstration project to obtain a resilient positioning, navigation, 
and timing capability demonstration, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

July 10, 2025

Mr. Mullin (for himself and Mr. Wittman) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

A BILL

To direct the Secretary of the Air Force to carry out a capability 
demonstration project to obtain a resilient positioning, navigation, 
and timing capability demonstration, and for other purposes.

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 ``Resilient Low Earth Orbit 
Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Act'' or the ``Resilient LEO PNT 
Act''.

SEC. 2. COMMERCIAL LOW EARTH ORBIT RESILIENT POSITIONING, NAVIGATION, 
AND TIMING CAPABILITY DEMONSTRATION AND PATHFINDER 
PROGRAM.

(a) Pathfinder Program.--Subject to the availability of 
appropriations for such purpose, the Secretary of the Air Force shall 
carry out a capability demonstration project, to be known as the 
``Commercial Low Earth Orbit Resilient Positioning, Navigation, and 
Timing Capability Demonstration'' in accordance with this section.
(b) Contract With Covered Service Provider.--
(1) Selection.--As soon as practicable after the date of 
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall--
(A) develop a list of covered service providers 
that can carry out a capability demonstration project 
with the technical capabilities described in subsection 
(c); and
(B) seek to award a contract to at least one such 
covered service provider.
(2) Contract.--The contract awarded to a covered service 
provider under this subsection shall provide that such covered 
service provider carry out a capability demonstration project 
with the technical capabilities described in subsection (c) not 
later than 18 months after the date of the award of such 
contract.
(c) Technical Capabilities.--The capability demonstration delivered 
under subsection (b)(2) shall demonstrate a satellite system that has--
(1) the ability to operate in the absence of Global 
Positioning System services;
(2) compatibility with user equipment that uses the 
civilian Global Positioning System L1 or L5 services without 
performing hardware modifications of receiver equipment;
(3) greater resistance to jamming and spoofing threats 
compared to existing Global Positioning System services, to an 
extent determined by the Secretary;
(4) the ability to provide timing accuracy of less than 10 
nanoseconds and position accuracy of less than 30 centimeters 
for stationary and mobile users; and
(5) the ability to restore service if some or all 
satellites in the satellite system are disabled, in a cadence 
as determined by the Secretary that substantially decreases the 
time to service restoration compared to what is possible under 
existing Global Positioning System service.
(d) Evaluation.--The Secretary shall evaluate the covered service 
providers for the purposes of developing the list of covered service 
providers under subsection (b)(1) based on the requirements in section 
(c) and the following factors:
(1) A demonstrated commercial business case.
(2) Technological readiness of space and ground network 
operations.
(3) Technological readiness of user equipment.
(4) Feasibility of rapidly manufacturing satellites for 
deployment.
(5) The requisite authorization by the Federal 
Communications Commission.
(e) Follow-On Production Contract or Transaction.--Not later than 
180 days after a determination by the Secretary that the capability 
demonstration project has been successfully completed, the Secretary 
shall, to the extent practicable, award a follow-on production contract 
or transaction (as defined in section 4022 of title 10, United States 
Code) to at least one covered service provider that carried out such 
successful capability demonstration project for the purpose of 
achieving operational deployment as determined by the Secretary.
(f) Briefing and Report.--Not later than two years after the date 
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall provide a briefing 
and submit a report to the Committees on Armed Services of the House of 
Representatives and the Senate on the capability demonstration project 
described in this section that includes--
(1) the list of covered service providers developed under 
subsection (b)(1);
(2) an assessment of such providers and how the capability 
demonstration offered by each demonstrates the technical 
capabilities listed in subsection (c);
(3) the results of the pathfinder capability demonstration; 
and
(4) a strategy and timeline for deploying the system 
demonstration by the capability demonstration project to 
operational scale.
(g) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) The term ``capability demonstration project'' means a 
prototype project pursuant to section 4022 of title 10, United 
States Code, that demonstrates resilient positioning, 
navigation, and timing capabilities by a low earth orbit system 
of satellites.
(2) The term ``covered service provider'' means a 
commercial entity that--
(A) has its principal office located in the United 
States; and
(B) provides low earth orbit positioning, 
navigation, and timing services.
(3) The term ``nanosecond'' means a nanosecond in Universal 
Coordinated Time, as maintained by the United States Naval 
Observatory (UTC(USNO)).
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