Strategic Unmanned Systems Partnership Act

Key Points

• The bill creates a joint U.S.-Ukraine working group focused on co-developing, co-producing, and acquiring low-cost, expendable unmanned systems like drones, underwater vehicles, and counter-drone technology. The group must be established within 90 days of the bill becoming law.
• The working group will identify Ukrainian drone designs that have proven effective in real combat and figure out how to manufacture them at scale inside the United States, including by tapping into civilian manufacturing expertise.
• The bill allows the U.S. to assess the feasibility of deploying American-made drones to Ukrainian forces for testing in active combat, giving U.S. designers real-world performance data against modern electronic warfare threats.
• Supply chains for co-produced drones must be scrubbed of parts from adversary nations including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The two countries will also create new frameworks for sharing battlefield data and jointly owning intellectual property.
• The working group would last five years, with the option for a one-year extension if the Secretary of Defense certifies it is vital to national security. Semiannual reports to congressional defense committees are required throughout.