In a late-night vote on May 22, the House Armed Services Committee advanced its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 by a vote of 57-1.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., was the only congressman to vote no on the bill.
During the marathon session, which began Wednesday morning and ended just after 10 p.m., lawmakers negotiated more than 700 amendments in the defense policy bill, which authorizes nearly $850 billion for the Department of Defense (DoD).
The FY2025 Service Member Quality of Life Improvement and NDAA now heads to the House floor for a vote. If approved, the bill is reconciled with the Senate’s version. The Senate Armed Services Committee has not released its version of the NDAA but has scheduled markup hearings to begin in June.
Investments in Space Tech for the Military
In its current state, the defense policy bill would establish a program that would open the door for the DoD to create a commercial “space reserve” to bolster military satellite capabilities during wartime.
The provision – written by the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee – gives the Secretary of Defense the authority to establish the “Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve” (CASR) program, which would create a “hybrid space architecture” linking national security, commercial, civil, and allied satellites into a massive mesh network.
The CASR program was first initiated by the Space Force in its new Commercial Space Integration Strategy issued in April.
Along that same line of effort, lawmakers approved an amendment in the NDAA that would require the Department of the Air Force to brief Congress on how it plans to leverage commercial solutions to meet the mission areas identified in the U.S. Space Force Commercial Space Strategy.
Clarity on Replicator Initiative
The DoD thus far has remained tight-lipped on the goings of its new Replicator initiative. But lawmakers included a provision that would require the DoD to provide more clarification on the program.
The Replicator initiative – which Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks announced in August 2023 – aims to field thousands of attritable autonomous systems across multiple domains and into the hands of warfighters within the next 18 to 24 months to counter China’s rapid armed forces buildup.
The draft NDAA doesn’t call out Replicator by name, but it does note that DoD’s reference to attritable unmanned aircraft system (UAS) remains ambiguous and lawmakers want more information.
“The committee recognizes that categorizing UAS as expendable or attritable varies with the situation … However, the committee believes there is still utility in illuminating how the Department of Defense views and categorizes its UAS as attritable,” the bill reads.
The bill requires DoD officials to brief lawmakers by Dec. 1 on what they mean by “attritable,” how the department categorizes UAS, and the price tag for those systems.
Creating a Cyber Force Branch
The defense policy bill also calls for an independent study on the creation of a Cyber Force military branch.
The amendment – led by Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas – would require the department to tap the National Academy of Sciences to conduct an independent evaluation of establishing a separate, uniformed Cyber Force.
The idea of creating a cyber military service branch is not a new concept. Last year, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, added a similar provision to the Senate version of the FY2024 NDAA, but the measure was cut from the final approved version of the bill.
If approved, the creation of a Cyber Force would follow the formation of the Space Force in 2019, the first new branch of the U.S. military in 72 years.
