The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) wants the Pentagon to put out a counter unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) strategy and to ascertain a counter UAS (c-UAS) task force.
SASC would mandate the Pentagon develop a technique “for countering drone technologies, referring drone offenses for investigation and prosecution, and assessing resources or authorities mandatory for drone incursion response,” in line with a summary of the committee’s version of the fiscal 2025 defense authorization bill.
The Senate defense authorizers also advise the DoD establishment of a c-UAS task force “to review guidance referring to c-UAS activities” and direct the Department of the Army, Air Force, and Navy “to offer briefings on respective service plans for counter-UAS capabilities,” the summary said.
After a 12 hour mark-up, SASC passed its version of the fiscal 2025 defense authorization bill early on June 13 on a vote of twenty-two to three–a bill opposed by SASC Chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.) for violating the Fiscal Responsibility Act cap on a one percent spending increase. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) also voted against the bill.
The Senate Historical Office said that records dating back to 1970 don’t show every other SASC chairman who has voted against the committee bill. 1961 marked the primary defense authorization bill.
The fiscal 2025 SASC measure approves a national defense topline of $923.3 billion–a $25 billion increase, SASC said. The bill authorizes $878.4 for the Pentagon, $33.4 billion for Department of Energy nuclear weapon programs, and $11.5 billion for defense-related programs outside of the defense authorizers’ jurisdiction, SASC said.
That $25 billion topline increase is $30 billion lower than Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the SASC rating member, has sought (, May 29). Wicker has backed a construct of three attack submarines per yr, a 357-ship Navy by 2035, and a growth in defense spending from three percent of gross domestic product to 5 percent.
Among the many areas of the $25 billion topline increase are $4 billion more for munitions, equivalent to Lockheed Martin [LMT] Standard Missile variants for the U.S. Navy and Precision Strike Missiles for the U.S. Army, that are to exchange the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) and that are to have a variety of 300 miles.
On Navy programs, SASC would authorize a 3rd destroyer in fiscal 2025 for $1.43 billion, about $1 billion for a full multi-year buy of amphibious ships, equivalent to the Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] LPD-17 class, and, just like the House Armed Services Committee, a second -class submarine.
Also included within the $25 billion topline increase is $400 million extra to permit the Air Force to speed up the Boeing [BA] E-7 Wedgetail advanced early warning aircraft for the U.S. Air Force to exchange the E-3 AWACS–a substitute that SASC staff imagine the Air Force has been too slow to prioritize. As well as, SASC would authorize an extra buy of six Boeing F-15EX fighters for the Air Force.
The sufficiency or lack thereof of the U.S. defense industrial base to satisfy U.S. and ally munitions needs has been a significant touch point within the DoD discourse, and the SASC bill would require the Army “to offer options to ascertain secondary domestic production sources at existing arsenals, depots, and ammunition plants to deal with munition supply chain chokepoints,” in line with a bill summary.