[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4344 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 4344
To direct the Secretary of the Air Force to carry out a capability
demonstration project to obtain a resilient positioning, navigation,
and timing capability demonstration, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 10, 2025
Mr. Mullin (for himself and Mr. Wittman) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of the Air Force to carry out a capability
demonstration project to obtain a resilient positioning, navigation,
and timing capability demonstration, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Resilient Low Earth Orbit
Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Act'' or the ``Resilient LEO PNT
Act''.
SEC. 2. COMMERCIAL LOW EARTH ORBIT RESILIENT POSITIONING, NAVIGATION,
AND TIMING CAPABILITY DEMONSTRATION AND PATHFINDER
PROGRAM.
(a) Pathfinder Program.--Subject to the availability of
appropriations for such purpose, the Secretary of the Air Force shall
carry out a capability demonstration project, to be known as the
``Commercial Low Earth Orbit Resilient Positioning, Navigation, and
Timing Capability Demonstration'' in accordance with this section.
(b) Contract With Covered Service Provider.--
(1) Selection.--As soon as practicable after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall--
(A) develop a list of covered service providers
that can carry out a capability demonstration project
with the technical capabilities described in subsection
(c); and
(B) seek to award a contract to at least one such
covered service provider.
(2) Contract.--The contract awarded to a covered service
provider under this subsection shall provide that such covered
service provider carry out a capability demonstration project
with the technical capabilities described in subsection (c) not
later than 18 months after the date of the award of such
contract.
(c) Technical Capabilities.--The capability demonstration delivered
under subsection (b)(2) shall demonstrate a satellite system that has--
(1) the ability to operate in the absence of Global
Positioning System services;
(2) compatibility with user equipment that uses the
civilian Global Positioning System L1 or L5 services without
performing hardware modifications of receiver equipment;
(3) greater resistance to jamming and spoofing threats
compared to existing Global Positioning System services, to an
extent determined by the Secretary;
(4) the ability to provide timing accuracy of less than 10
nanoseconds and position accuracy of less than 30 centimeters
for stationary and mobile users; and
(5) the ability to restore service if some or all
satellites in the satellite system are disabled, in a cadence
as determined by the Secretary that substantially decreases the
time to service restoration compared to what is possible under
existing Global Positioning System service.
(d) Evaluation.--The Secretary shall evaluate the covered service
providers for the purposes of developing the list of covered service
providers under subsection (b)(1) based on the requirements in section
(c) and the following factors:
(1) A demonstrated commercial business case.
(2) Technological readiness of space and ground network
operations.
(3) Technological readiness of user equipment.
(4) Feasibility of rapidly manufacturing satellites for
deployment.
(5) The requisite authorization by the Federal
Communications Commission.
(e) Follow-On Production Contract or Transaction.--Not later than
180 days after a determination by the Secretary that the capability
demonstration project has been successfully completed, the Secretary
shall, to the extent practicable, award a follow-on production contract
or transaction (as defined in section 4022 of title 10, United States
Code) to at least one covered service provider that carried out such
successful capability demonstration project for the purpose of
achieving operational deployment as determined by the Secretary.
(f) Briefing and Report.--Not later than two years after the date
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall provide a briefing
and submit a report to the Committees on Armed Services of the House of
Representatives and the Senate on the capability demonstration project
described in this section that includes--
(1) the list of covered service providers developed under
subsection (b)(1);
(2) an assessment of such providers and how the capability
demonstration offered by each demonstrates the technical
capabilities listed in subsection (c);
(3) the results of the pathfinder capability demonstration;
and
(4) a strategy and timeline for deploying the system
demonstration by the capability demonstration project to
operational scale.
(g) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) The term ``capability demonstration project'' means a
prototype project pursuant to section 4022 of title 10, United
States Code, that demonstrates resilient positioning,
navigation, and timing capabilities by a low earth orbit system
of satellites.
(2) The term ``covered service provider'' means a
commercial entity that--
(A) has its principal office located in the United
States; and
(B) provides low earth orbit positioning,
navigation, and timing services.
(3) The term ``nanosecond'' means a nanosecond in Universal
Coordinated Time, as maintained by the United States Naval
Observatory (UTC(USNO)).
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