This bill adds a new section to the Homeland Security Act that requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to produce an assessment of terrorism threats from the global spread and malicious use of covered unmanned aircraft systems by covered foreign adversaries, including terrorist organizations. The first assessment must be submitted within 270 days of enactment and then annually for six years. Each assessment is to be submitted in classified form with an unclassified annex posted publicly. The Secretary must also provide a classified briefing to the specified congressional committees within seven days of each submission.
The required assessment must cover many topics, including: methods, trends, tactics, and technologies used to surveil, damage, or attack targets; risks that other groups or lone actors could copy these methods; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance uses; how adversaries acquire, manufacture, smuggle, or divert unmanned aircraft systems; emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, autonomy, precision payloads, encrypted links, tethering, and anti-jamming features; use of low-cost swarms; potential delivery of chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear payloads or simulants; water-launched or container-deployed drones and implications for ports and borders; lessons learned from global conflicts and allied experience; use by transnational criminal groups; the Department's research and development efforts; and private-sector collaboration. The Secretary may include other related matters as appropriate.
The bill defines key terms. A "covered foreign adversary/country" is tied to the intelligence community's Annual Threat Assessment or to a Secretary/DNI determination. A "covered unmanned aircraft system" is one made in, using components from, running software from, or storing data in a covered foreign country. The Secretary must consult with other federal departments and seek private-sector expertise, and must develop recommendations, training modules, and exercises for federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial law enforcement.
No publicly available information on costs or funding is included in the bill text or the provided metadata.
No publicly available information.
No publicly available information.