National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, Section 350 ("Pilot program for data-enabled ground vehicle maintenance")

• Authority: United States Congress
• Parent authority: Federal government
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: NDAA provisions;U.S. federal laws;FY2026 NDAA
• Most recent activity: Enacted
• Most recent activity date: 2025-12-18

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
• Cyberattacks, weapon development or use
• Competitive dynamics
• Lack of capability or robustness

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has minimal coverage of approximately 3-4 subdomains, with focus on AI system security (2.2), cyberattacks and weapons (4.2), competitive dynamics (6.4), and lack of robustness (7.3). Coverage is concentrated in security and system safety domains, with limited depth on most risk areas.

Sector coverage

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

• National Security

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This document primarily governs AI use in the National Security sector, specifically within the Army, Navy, and Air Force for ground vehicle maintenance operations. It is a military-specific pilot program with no coverage of civilian sectors.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding legislative act passed by the United States Congress with mandatory requirements for the Secretary of Defense to establish a pilot program, conduct assessments, and submit reports to Congress.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress
• Summary: The document is a section of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, which is proposed and enacted by the United States Congress as indicated by the title and legislative format.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor, AI_Deployer
• Entities: Secretary concerned with respect to a covered Armed Force; Army; Navy; Air Force; Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer of the Department of Defense
• Summary: The document explicitly targets the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force who must establish and implement the pilot program. These entities are both governance actors (as government agencies) and AI deployers (as they will deploy AI technologies for vehicle maintenance).

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Committees on Armed Services of the House of Representatives and the Senate
• Summary: The Congressional Armed Services Committees serve as the enforcement body through their oversight authority, requiring mandatory reporting and having the power to conduct oversight of the pilot program implementation.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Committees on Armed Services of the House of Representatives and the Senate; Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer of the Department of Defense
• Summary: The Congressional Armed Services Committees monitor implementation through mandatory reporting requirements. The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer also has a consultative monitoring role in the establishment and operation of the pilot program.

AI Lifecycle Stages

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

• Verify and Validate
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document primarily covers the Deploy and Operate and Monitor stages of the AI lifecycle, as it focuses on implementing commercially available AI technologies for ground vehicle maintenance and assessing their effectiveness through a pilot program. There is minimal coverage of the Verify and Validate stage through assessment requirements.

Technical Scope

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

• Predictive AI
• Task-specific AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly mentions artificial intelligence technologies and AI-driven approaches but does not specify particular types of AI models, systems architectures, or technical thresholds. The focus is on commercially available AI technologies for maintenance applications without detailed technical categorization.