Sec. 875. Organic small unmanned aircraft system manufacturing capacity
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Not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall establish in the Defense Industrial Resilience Consortium established under section 1842 a working group, to be called the SkyFoundry Working Group , to develop recommendations— for improving the domestic manufacturing capacity for small unmanned aircraft systems; and to enable rapid development, testing, and scalable manufacturing of small drones. The membership of the working group shall include representatives from the Government, including representatives from the Army Materiel Command and the United States Special Operations Command, industry, and academia with expertise in the manufacturing, engineering, or testing and evaluation of small UAS manufacturing, including expertise in modular manufacturing processes for small UAS, or commercial best practices and business models for manufacturing small UAS.
The working group established under subsection
(a)shall— identify existing infrastructure of the Department of Defense, including depots and military installations, that may be modified to operate as an innovation center and production facility for small UAS manufacturing that is capable of mass producing small UAS; assess how the infrastructure identified under paragraph
(1)could be operated using a hybrid business model, including— a Government Owned, Contractor Operated model; and a Government Owned, Government Operated model; identify additional authorities that could be used to streamline and expedite the establishment of an organic small UAS innovation and production facility, including rapid acquisition authorities that could be used to accelerate contacting, production, testing, and delivery of small UAS to the Department of Defense; identify any changes to policy and procedures of the Department that are required for the Department to establish the innovation center and production facility for sUAS manufacturing at an existing depot or military installation; identify any funding required for the sustainment, restoration, and modernization of facilities to establish an innovation center and production facility for small UAS manufacturing; and develop and submit to the Secretary of Defense recommendations for— establishing an innovation center and production facility for small UAS manufacturing; workforce training to enhance the knowledge and experience of the workforce of the Department of Defense in small UAS design, manufacturing, and testing best practices and procedures; and expanding the concept of a innovation center and production facility to expand the access of the Department of Defense to required products, including energetics and autonomous systems. Not later than 270 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to Congress— a summary of the recommendations submitted to the Secretary under subsection (c)(6); an explanation of the actions taken by the Secretary to better enable the Department of Defense to rapidly develop, test, and manufacture small UAS; and the recommendations of the Secretary to enable the Department to expand domestic manufacturing capacity for small unmanned aircraft systems and to enable rapid development, testing, and scalable manufacturing of small drones, including any recommendations for any additional relevant statutory authorities. The requirements under this section shall expire on the date that is one year after the date of this Act. Paragraph
(1)shall not be construed as terminating the authority of the Secretary to continue the operating the working group established under subsection
(a)after the expiration date established under such paragraph. The establishment or findings of the working group established under subsection
(a)shall not be construed as restricting, delaying, or otherwise limiting the Secretary of the Army from exercising any of the authorities of the Secretary referred to in this section, including the performance of any action under any authority of the Secretary that may be the subject of a review by or recommendation of such working group. In this section: The term small unmanned aircraft system mean a small unmanned aircraft and associated elements (including communication links and the components that control the unmanned aircraft) that are required for the operator to operate safely and efficiently in the national airspace system. The term small unmanned aircraft means an unmanned aircraft weighing less than 55 pounds, including the weight of anything attached to or carried by the aircraft.