Sec. 1273. Defense assessment

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Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State shall jointly conduct a comprehensive, multilateral assessment of the military requirements of such countries to deter and resist aggression by Russia that— provides an assessment of past and current initiatives to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, readiness and interoperability of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia’s national defense capabilities; and assesses the manner in which to meet those objectives, including future resource requirements and recommendations, by undertaking activities in the following areas:

Activities to increase the rotational and forward presence, improve the capabilities, and enhance the posture and response readiness of the United States or forces of NATO in the Baltic region. Activities to improve air defense systems, including modern air-surveillance capabilities. Activities to improve counter-unmanned aerial system capabilities. Activities to improve command and control capabilities through increasing communications, technology, and intelligence capacity and coordination, including secure and hardened communications.

Activities to improve intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. Activities to enhance maritime domain awareness. Activities to improve military and defense infrastructure, logistics, and access, particularly transport of military supplies and equipment. Investments to ammunition stocks and storage. Activities and training to enhance cyber security and electronic warfare capabilities. Bilateral and multilateral training and exercises. New and existing cost-sharing mechanisms with United States and NATO allies to reduce financial burden.

Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State jointly shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report, which shall be submitted in unclassified form but may include a classified annex, that includes each of the following: A report on the findings of the assessment conducted pursuant to subsection

(a). A list of any recommendations resulting from such assessment. An assessment of the resource requirements to achieve the objectives described in subsection (a)(1) with respect to the national defense capability of Baltic countries, including potential investments by host countries. A plan for the United States to use appropriate security cooperation authorities or other authorities to— facilitate relevant recommendations included in the list described in paragraph

(2); expand joint training between the Armed Forces and the military of Lithuania, Latvia, or Estonia, including with the participation of other NATO allies; and support United States foreign military sales and other equipment transfers to Baltic countries especially for the activities described in subparagraphs

(A)through

(I)of subsection (a)(2) .