William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, Division A, Title XXXV, Section 3521 ("Maritime security and domain awareness")

• Authority: United States Congress
• Parent authority: Federal government
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: NDAA provisions;U.S. federal laws
• Most recent activity: Enacted
• Most recent activity date: 2021-01-01

Risk subdomain coverage

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• AI system security vulnerabilities

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

This document has minimal coverage of AI risk domains. It primarily addresses maritime security and domain awareness through assessment of commercial solutions for autonomous vehicles and information sharing systems. The only substantive AI-related risk coverage is in system security vulnerabilities (2.2) with minimal mention, as the document requires assessment of technological solutions including autonomous vehicles for maritime surveillance. No other AI risk domains are meaningfully addressed.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Public Administration (excl. National Security)
• National Security

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Information
• Scientific Research & Development Services

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This document primarily governs the Public Administration excluding National Security and National Security sectors, as it directs federal agencies (Department of Defense, Navy, Coast Guard, State Department, Commerce Department) to coordinate on maritime security assessments. It also has minimal coverage of the Information sector through assessment of commercial technological solutions for data collection and sharing.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding federal statute enacted by the United States Congress as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, containing mandatory obligations on specified government officials with clear enforcement authority.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress
• Summary: The document is Section 3521 of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, enacted by the United States Congress as federal legislation.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Secretary of Defense; Secretary of the Navy; Secretary of State; Secretary of the Department in which the Coast Guard is operating; Secretary of Commerce; Director of the Office of Naval Intelligence
• Summary: The document imposes mandatory obligations on multiple executive branch officials to conduct assessments, enter into agreements, and submit reports regarding maritime security and domain awareness solutions.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: congressional defense committees; Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives; Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate; Committee on Armed Services; Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Committee on Natural Resources; Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure; Committee on Appropriations
• Summary: Congressional committees are designated as recipients of mandatory reports and assessments, providing oversight and enforcement through their legislative and budgetary authority.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: congressional defense committees; Committee on Armed Services; Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Committee on Foreign Relations; Committee on Appropriations; Committee on Natural Resources; Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure; Committee on Foreign Affairs
• Summary: The same congressional committees that receive mandatory reports serve as monitoring bodies to track implementation and effectiveness of the maritime security assessments and coordination efforts.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Plan and Design
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document addresses the Plan and Design stage by requiring assessment of commercial solutions for maritime domain awareness, and the Operate and Monitor stage through ongoing Coast Guard assessment of autonomous vehicles. It does not substantially cover data collection, model building, verification/validation, or deployment stages.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

No technical scope terms identified.

Technical Scope Summary

The document mentions autonomous vehicles in the context of maritime domain awareness but does not explicitly define or discuss AI models, AI systems, frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, generative AI, predictive AI, open-weight models, or compute thresholds. The focus is on commercial technological solutions for maritime security rather than AI-specific governance.