The proposed funding is part of a broader $150 billion reconciliation bill unveiled Sunday that’s intended to boost spending on U.S. military capabilities and border security.

“This legislation represents a generational upgrade for our nation’s defense capabilities, including historic investments in new technology,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said in a statement. “This is about building the future of American defense, achieving peace through strength, and ultimately deterring war.”

If the bill is passed, sizable investments would go toward kamikaze drones — also known as one-way attack drones or loitering munitions — that are designed to destroy their targets by crashing into them. U.S. Army and Marine Corps leaders are gung-ho about acquiring these types of capabilities after watching their heavy use in Ukraine and other conflicts.

The legislation would pump $1 billion into expanding the kamikaze drone industrial base, provide $50 million to accelerate delivery of one-way attack unmanned aerial systems with “advanced autonomy,” and allocate $145 million for the development of AI capabilities to enable one-way attack UAS and naval systems.

An additional $500 million would be allotted to “prevent delays” in the delivery of “attritable autonomous military capabilities.” The bill did not identify specific systems that lawmakers are concerned about facing potential delays.

The legislation also includes $1.1 billion in funding to expand the small UAS industrial base.

More money would go toward uncrewed maritime platforms, including about $1.8 billion for expansion of medium unmanned surface vessel production; $1.5 billion for expansion of small USV production; $1.3 billion for expansion of unmanned underwater vehicle production; $250 million for the development, production and integration of wave-powered UUVs; and $188 million for the development and testing of “maritime robotic autonomous systems and enabling technologies.”

Another $174 million would be invested in the development of a Test Resource Management Center robotic autonomous systems “proving ground.”

Pentagon officials are also keen on acquiring new capabilities to defeat adversaries’ drones, and the reconciliation bill includes funding for those types of tools.

The legislation would allocate $250 million for the development, production and integration of land-based counter-UAS programs; $200 million for the development, production and integration of ship-based counter-drone programs; and $350 million for the development, production and integration of non-kinetic counter-UAS programs. The term “non-kinetic” in U.S. military parlance generally refers to weapons that aren’t projectiles or missiles, such as electronic warfare, directed energy, or cyber capabilities.

“This legislation is a historic investment of $150 billion to restore America’s military capabilities and strengthen our national defense,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said in a statement. “Our military’s resources have declined over the years … Our defense industrial base has weakened. America’s deterrence is failing and without a generational investment in our national defense, we will lose the ability to defeat our adversaries.”

The HASC is slated to hold a markup session for the reconciliation bill Tuesday. The legislation will subsequently be sent to the House Budget Committee.

The post Reconciliation bill includes billions for new drone capabilities appeared first on DefenseScoop.

Put forward by HASC Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama and SASC Chairman Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the reconciliation bill would give a $150 billion boost to defense spending. By using the budget reconciliation process, Republican lawmakers are hoping to expedite funding towards 11 high-priority defense issues without threat of a Senate filibuster.

“This legislation represents a generational upgrade for our nation’s defense capabilities, including historic investments in new technology,” Wicker said in a statement. “This is about building the future of American defense, achieving peace through strength, and ultimately deterring war.”

The Golden Dome missile defense shield would receive $24.7 billion to help kick off the massive project, if the legislation is approved.

The vision for the effort was introduced via an executive order signed by Trump in January and looks to field a multi-layered, homeland defense architecture able to defeat a range of missile threats. As outlined in the EO, Golden Dome would comprise both existing Defense Department programs as well as nascent technologies — such as space-based sensors and weapons.

To that end, lawmakers added around $15.6 billion for space systems under “next-generation missile defense technologies,” according to the bill text. That includes $7.2 billion for development and procurement of new space-based sensors, $5.6 billion to develop space-based and boost phase intercept capabilities, and $2 billion for air-moving target indicator satellites.

The bill also puts money towards other emerging technology efforts. If approved, the legislation would add $2.4 billion to development of non-kinetic missile defense effects like electronic warfare and cyber capabilities. In addition, the Pentagon’s Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed (MACH-TB) effort — which aims to accelerate flight testing for hypersonic weapons — would receive $400 million.

As for “layered homeland defense” initiatives, lawmakers are proposing $2.2 billion to accelerate hypersonic defense systems and $1.9 billion for improvements to ground-based missile defense radars. The bill would also add $800 million for expedited development and deployment of next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile defense systems.

Besides efforts related to Golden Dome, the reconciliation bill proposes additional funds towards other key defense priorities such as shipbuilding and munitions production capacity. Notably, lawmakers also allocated around $14 billion towards rapid fielding of emerging capabilities — including small unmanned aerial systems, command-and-control technologies and attritable weapon systems — as well as improving integration with the commercial sector.

“This legislation is a historic investment of $150 billion to restore America’s military capabilities and strengthen our national defense,” Rogers said in a statement. “America’s deterrence is failing and without a generational investment in our national defense, we will lose the ability to defeat our adversaries. With this bill, we have the opportunity to get back on track and restore our national security and global leadership.”

HASC will hold a markup session for the reconciliation bill on Tuesday where members can submit amendments, after which it will be sent to the House Budget Committee.

The post Lawmakers propose $25B to fund Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense shield appeared first on DefenseScoop.

On March 24, Atlantic magazine editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg published a story revealing he was accidentally added to a group chat on Signal, an encrypted but unclassified commercial messaging app, where some of the Trump administration’s top national security officials discussed upcoming strikes against Houthi militants in Yemen — including Hegseth.

“The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business,” Steve Stebbins, acting inspector general at the Pentagon, wrote in a memo published Thursday. “Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements.”

Along with Hegseth, the “Houthi PC small group” Signal chat also included Vice President JD Vance, national security advisor Michael Waltz, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other officials.

The scandal — dubbed “SignalGate” — exploded in Washington’s political circles and has been met with stark backlash from members of Congress. On March 27, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Ranking Member Jack Reed, D-R.I., sent a letter to Stebbins calling for an investigation of the incident. 

“If true, this reporting raises questions as to the use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information, as well as the sharing of such information with those who do not have proper clearance and need to know,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter.

While the DOD IG memo does not detail the specific aspects of the incident it will investigate, Wicker and Reed listed six action items they wished to have the watchdog review. Among those are the information communicated in the chat and any remedial actions taken; whether or not that information is considered classified; the Pentagon’s policies related to sharing sensitive and classified information on non-government networks; and recommendations to address issues the IG identifies.

Overall, both the White House and the Pentagon have attempted to downplay the sensitivity of the information shared in the group chat, with many officials denying that the discussions involved classified information. While visiting the Indo-Pacific region the week after the Atlantic’s Signal story was published, Hegseth claimed that he did not discuss “war plans” on the messaging app.

Following backlash from the White House, Goldberg published a follow-up article that shed more light into the messages sent between Hegseth and other officials in the chat — including approximate times that specific weapons and aircraft would be used during the strike.

Despite the new details, Pentagon officials doubled down on their assertion the information wasn’t classified.

“These additional Signal chat messages confirm there were no classified materials or war plans shared,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement. “The Secretary was merely updating the group on a plan that was underway and had already been briefed through official channels. The American people see through the Atlantic’s pathetic attempts to distract from President Trump’s national security agenda.”

The post Pentagon IG launches investigation into Hegseth’s involvement in ‘SignalGate’ appeared first on DefenseScoop.

A report accompanying the panel’s version of the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, which was released this week, highlighted members’ concerns about where things stand.

“The committee believes that the most effective counter-unmanned aerial systems (UAS) capabilities for the joint force are those using software-defined technologies of autonomy, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning,” they wrote, noting that U.S. Special Operations Command has been using such technologies to rapidly deploy cutting-edge counter-UAS capabilities in combat environments. That includes multi-modal sensing capabilities and vertical take-off and landing, AI-driven autonomous air vehicles that can defeat “Group 3” drones — a category of UAS that includes loitering munitions, which are also known as kamikaze drones or one-way attack drones.

Industry has been developing cutting-edge systems, like Anduril’s Roadrunner-M, that are designed to perform air defense missions.

“The committee is concerned by the obstacles to transitioning these innovative capabilities from SOCOM to conventional forces,” and “the committee is concerned that the Services have not budgeted to sustain and expand these types of critical capabilities,” lawmakers noted in the report.

The legislation would require the acquisition executives for the Army, Navy and Air Force to provide separate briefings to the armed services committees on the Hill by Jan. 31, 2025, on their plans to “resource, transition, and scale advanced, AI-enabled, combat-validated UAS defeat capabilities to conventional forces within their department.”

The wording in the provision is very similar to a House-passed version of the annual defense policy bill, which makes it more likely that this type of directive will be included in the final version of the NDAA that comes out of the House-Senate conference process.

Autonomous air vehicles and tracking capabilities aren’t the only high-tech, drone-killing tools that lawmakers want to see the Defense Department prioritize and accelerate for fielding. They’re also keen on directed energy systems, a category of weapons that includes high-energy lasers and high-power microwaves.

DE tools are seen as a more cost-effective way of defeating large numbers of inexpensive drones, on a cost-per-shot basis, than many of the missiles or “kinetic” interceptors in the U.S. military’s arsenal.

In recent years, batches of UAS have been launched against Ukrainian forces and infrastructure by Russia, against U.S. Navy ships and commercial vessels in the Red Sea by the Houthis, and against American troops in the Middle East by other Iranian-backed groups.

“The committee remains concerned about the threat posed by low-cost attritable aerial drones, especially the threat that drone swarms pose to our forces. The committee notes that conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East clearly demonstrate the utility and proliferation of low-cost attritable aerial drone systems and believes that more must be done to protect U.S. servicemembers from that threat. The committee welcomes the resulting increase in focus of the Department of Defense (DOD) on exploring the use of directed energy systems to defeat these threats at a low cost per engagement,” lawmakers wrote in the report for the SASC version of the policy bill.

“The committee encourages DOD to prioritize rapidly developing and acquiring directed energy systems to defeat large drone swarms and believes that the Department should utilize all available rapid acquisition pathways to develop and acquire directed energy counter drone swarm systems,” they added.

The Pentagon has been experimenting with these types of weapons and deployed some of them overseas, but not on a scale that some officials and advocates would like to see.

The Army has sent a 50-kilowatt laser system to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility in the Middle East. Doug Bush, the service’s acquisition chief, said officials are getting important feedback from the effort.

“I think we’re learning a lot about the challenges of integration of that powerful laser system … on a vehicle versus doing it at a fixed site or versus doing a lower-power laser on a vehicle like a Stryker. So I think the learning that’s going on, though, is absolutely informing the [program objective memorandum] decisions being made, budget decisions being made right now in terms of what is most likely to succeed first in the directed energy realm. You know, beyond that, the fact that it’s deployed and being used by real soldiers, again, that’s just the best test we can have. I can’t get into more detail on effectiveness right now because of just security concerns,” Bush told reporters in June.

Meanwhile, Epirus has delivered prototypes derived from its Leonidas system to support the Army’s Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High-Power Microwave (IFPC-HPM) initiative. The Navy is also experimenting with the technology.

Some U.S. military leaders have expressed frustration that more DE systems haven’t been fielded. Other Defense Department officials have noted that there are still challenges to overcome, including command-and-command issues.

The SASC version of the NDAA would direct the secretary of defense to provide a briefing to the House and Senate armed services committees by Feb. 1, 2025, on all the department’s initiatives to develop and procure DE weapons that could defeat large numbers of enemy drones in a single engagement.

This week, SASC Chair Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Ranking Member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., announced that the committee’s NDAA was filed for the full Senate’s consideration.

“I am glad that this year’s NDAA makes important progress in a number of areas, including … significant support for technologies like counter-drone defenses and AI,” Reed said in a statement, before noting that he had to vote against the passage of the legislation because it includes authorization for a funding increase that can’t be appropriated without busting spending caps.

“I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate and House to find practical ways to strengthen this year’s defense bill,” he said.

In a statement, Wicker said he was “encouraged that many of my colleagues have joined me in the conversation about the need to invest more in our national defense. I look forward to discussing the peace through strength vision I have laid out in the months to come. This year’s NDAA results are a testament to the tradition of bipartisanship, vigorous debate, and good working order on which this committee prides itself.”

The post Senators amplify concerns about pace of fielding AI-enabled counter-drone systems appeared first on DefenseScoop.