S. 4633

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4633 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 4633

To require a strategy for the deployment, employment, integration, 
exportability, and scaling of unmanned and autonomous systems in the 
Indo-Pacific region and the Western Hemisphere, to strengthen homeland 
defense, to support counter-narcotics and counter-trafficking 
operations, and to increase ally and partner burden sharing, and for 
other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

May 21, 2026

Mr. McCormick (for himself and Mr. Fetterman) introduced the following 
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed 
Services

_______________________________________________________________________

A BILL

To require a strategy for the deployment, employment, integration, 
exportability, and scaling of unmanned and autonomous systems in the 
Indo-Pacific region and the Western Hemisphere, to strengthen homeland 
defense, to support counter-narcotics and counter-trafficking 
operations, and to increase ally and partner burden sharing, 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 ``Unmanned and Autonomous Systems 
Strategy Act of 2026''.

SEC. 2. 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 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.
(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 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.
(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'' mean an unmanned, self-propelled 
vehicle that operates below the surface of the water, including 
remotely operated vehicles and autonomous undersea vehicles.
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