National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, Section 345 ("Technology enhancement for surface ship 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.

• Lack of capability or robustness

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has minimal coverage of AI risk domains, with limited focus on AI system safety and reliability (7.3) through predictive maintenance requirements. The document primarily addresses naval ship maintenance technology adoption processes rather than comprehensive AI risk management. Coverage is concentrated in system robustness and operational reliability concerns.

Sector coverage

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

• National Security

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

• Agriculture, Mining, Construction & Manufacturing
• Information
• Professional & Technical Services
• Scientific Research & Development Services

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This document primarily governs the National Security sector, specifically addressing the U.S. Navy's adoption of advanced technologies including AI-driven systems for surface ship maintenance. It establishes mandatory processes for technology qualification, approval, and integration within military operations.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding legislative act from the United States Congress with mandatory obligations on the Secretary of the Navy, including investigation requirements, qualification processes, third-party review mechanisms, and Congressional reporting requirements with specific timelines.

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 authority field.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor, AI_Deployer
• Entities: Secretary of the Navy; Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment; non-government entities
• Summary: The primary target is the Secretary of the Navy who must investigate and adopt technologies. Non-government entities are also targets as they can submit proposals for advanced technologies. The Navy acts as both a governance actor (government entity) and deployer (implementing AI-driven predictive maintenance systems).

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress; Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and House of Representatives; Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment
• Summary: Congress enforces through oversight via the Committees on Armed Services, which receive mandatory reports. The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment enforces through third-party review mechanisms.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and House of Representatives; independent third-party reviewer
• Summary: The Committees on Armed Services monitor implementation through required reports. An independent third-party reviewer is contracted to assess decisions and provide evaluation reports to Congress.

AI Lifecycle Stages

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

• Plan and Design
• 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, focusing on the integration and adoption of AI-driven predictive maintenance technologies into Navy surface ship maintenance operations. There is minimal coverage of earlier stages like planning, data collection, or model building.

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 AI in the context of predictive maintenance algorithms for failure prediction. It does not define AI models or systems formally, nor does it reference frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, or compute thresholds. The focus is on task-specific AI applications for naval maintenance operations.