Summary

Expands and clarifies Department of Defense authority to detect, mitigate, and neutralize threats from unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and unmanned aircraft. It authorizes delegation of those authorities to combatant commanders and other DoD officials, permits use of remote-identification signals as mitigation tools, and broadens the types of protective and emergency response activities DoD may perform. Limits public disclosure of information about the technologies, procedures, and guidance used to carry out these activities by exempting that material from FOIA and certain state/local disclosure laws, extends several statutory deadlines to 2030 and updates an internal reference date to January 1, 2026, and clarifies that specified federal criminal statutes do not apply to certain DoD and Coast Guard actions conducted outside the United States.

Key Points

• Expands DoD authority to detect, mitigate, and neutralize unmanned aircraft system threats.
• Allows the Secretary of Defense to delegate mitigation authorities to combatant commanders and other DoD officials.
• Permits use of remote identification broadcasts and similar means as part of mitigation actions.
• Creates a FOIA and state/local disclosure exemption for information about technologies, procedures, and guidance used to carry out the authority.
• Extends several statutory deadlines to 2030 and lengthens a 180-day period to one year.
• Clarifies that certain federal criminal statutes and 49 U.S.C. §46502 do not apply to DoD and Coast Guard actions outside the United States related to UAS threat mitigation.
• Adds authorities to protect non-public DoD property and to assist in incidents involving WMD or high-yield explosives under existing emergency and defense statutes.
• Defines unified combatant command by statutory reference and reorganizes statutory subsections for clarity.

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