[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2506 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 2506
To require the Secretary of Defense to establish and carry out a
program to enable the rapid development, testing, and scalable
manufacture of small unmanned aircraft systems, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
July 29, 2025
Mr. Cruz (for himself, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Cotton, and Mr. Cornyn)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Armed Services
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Defense to establish and carry out a
program to enable the rapid development, testing, and scalable
manufacture of small unmanned aircraft systems, 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 ``SkyFoundry Act of 2025''.
SEC. 2. SKYFOUNDRY PROGRAM.
(a) Establishment.--
(1) Program required.--The Secretary of Defense shall
establish and carry out a program to enable the rapid
development, testing, and scalable manufacture of small
unmanned aircraft systems, with potential expansion to
associated energetics and other autonomous systems as
determined by the Secretary.
(2) Designation.--The program established pursuant to
paragraph (1) shall be known as the ``SkyFoundry Program'' (in
this section the ``Program'').
(3) Administration.--The Secretary shall--
(A) administer the Program through the Secretary of
the Army; and
(B) establish the Program as part of the Defense
Industrial Resilience Consortium.
(b) Alternative Acquisition Mechanism.--In carrying out the
Program, the Secretary shall leverage alternative acquisition
mechanisms to accelerate development and production. Such mechanisms
shall include the use of other transaction authority under section 4022
of title 10, United States Code, and the use of the middle tier of
acquisition pathway for rapid prototyping and rapid fielding as
authorized by section 3602 of such title.
(c) Components.--The Program shall have two components as follows:
(1) Innovation facility.--A Government-owned innovation
facility for the development of small unmanned aircraft systems
that is operated by the United States Army Materiel Command in
coordination with United States Futures Command and serves as
the research, development, and testing hub, integrating lessons
learned from global conflicts to rapidly evolve United States
small unmanned aircraft systems designs.
(2) Production facility.--The Commander of United States
Army Materiel Command shall identify a Government-owned
production facility with the competencies for producing various
forms of small unmanned aircraft systems. The facility shall be
operated by United States Army Materiel Command and have the
capability to produce 1,000,000 small unmanned aircraft systems
annually once fully established.
(d) Government-Owned Government-Operated Contractor Augmented
Model.--The Secretary may--
(1) enter into multiyear contracts or agreements for
contractor augmented support to the Program, including
integrating specialized contractor personnel within Program
facilities as part of hybrid teams alongside military and
civilian personnel; and
(2) enter into public-private partnership agreements with
private industry, academic institutions, and nonprofit entities
in support of the Program.
(e) Facilities and Infrastructure.--
(1) In general.--In carrying out the Program, the Secretary
shall prioritize utilizing or modifying existing Army Depot
facilities and select at least two separate sites for the
Program, one to house the innovation facility required by
subsection (b)(1) and one to house the production facility
required by subsection (b)(2).
(2) Authority to renovate, expand, and construct.--The
Secretary may renovate, expand, or construct facilities for the
Program using available funds, notwithstanding chapter 169 of
title 10, United States Code.
(3) Selection of sites.--When selecting sites for the
Program, the Secretary shall consider that the production
facility required by subsection (b)(2) shall be housed at an
existing Army Depot that meets the following requirements:
(A) The Army Depot shall be comprised of 15,000
acres of land.
(B) The Army Depot shall have approximately 10,000
buildable acres of land.
(C) The Army Depot shall have approximately
8,000,000 square feet of facilities.
(D) The Army Depot shall be located within 50 miles
of four States.
(f) Intellectual Property Rights.--The Secretary shall ensure that
the United States retains appropriate intellectual property and
technical data rights for any systems or technologies developed under
the Program. At a minimum, the Secretary shall secure Government
purpose rights in intellectual property developed jointly with
contractors, to enable the Government's continued production,
sustainment, modification, and competitive procurement of such systems.
(g) Defense Production Act Designation.--The President (or the
Secretary of Defense under delegated authority) shall utilize
authorities under title III of the Defense Production Act of 1950 (50
U.S.C. 4531 et seq.) to prioritize and support domestic industrial base
capacity for small unmanned aircraft systems and associated energetics
and autonomous systems. Such items shall be deemed essential for the
national defense industrial base, and Title III efforts may include
investments in production scale-up, establishment of strategic
materials stockpiles, and surge manufacturing capacity for these
systems and components.
(h) Expedited Approvals and Waivers.--The Secretary, or the
Secretary of the Army under explicit delegated authority, may expedite,
and as appropriate to waive or modify Department of Defense regulatory
requirements and internal procedures that would otherwise impede the
rapid development, acquisition, or production activities of the
Program.
<all>