National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, Section 1048 ("Authorization of Eastern Regional Range Complex for multi-domain operations and robotic autonomous systems training, testing, and experimentation")

• 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
• AI possessing dangerous capabilities
• 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 explicit focus on specific harms. Primary coverage relates to malicious actors (4.2) through weapon development and counter-UAS capabilities, and system safety (7.2, 7.3) through testing and evaluation of autonomous systems. Coverage is concentrated in security and capability development rather than risk mitigation.

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.

• Information
• Scientific Research & Development Services

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This document primarily governs the National Security sector through the development of military training and testing infrastructure for autonomous systems. It also has implications for the Information sector through telecommunications and spectrum management coordination.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding legislative provision within the National Defense Authorization Act, enacted by the United States Congress with mandatory authority granted to the Secretary of Defense. The document uses mandatory language ('shall') and establishes legal obligations for federal agencies.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress
• Summary: The document is Section 1048 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, which is proposed and enacted by the United States Congress as the legislative authority.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor, AI_Developer
• Entities: Secretary of Defense; Secretaries of the military departments; Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office; Joint Staff (J-7); Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering; Defense Innovation Unit; State National Guard commands; Office of Naval Research; relevant combatant commands and service components; allies and partners of the United States
• Summary: The document targets the Secretary of Defense and military departments who are authorized to develop the complex, as well as various defense entities that will coordinate activities. These entities will be developing, testing, and deploying autonomous systems.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Secretary of Defense; Secretaries of the military departments
• Summary: The Secretary of Defense has the authority to designate, develop, and ensure coordination of activities at the complex, with implementation through the military departments.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office; Joint Staff (J-7); Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering; Federal Communications Commission; National Telecommunications and Information Administration
• Summary: Multiple offices are designated for coordination and oversight of activities at the complex, with consultation authority granted to communications regulatory bodies for spectrum access.

AI Lifecycle Stages

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

• Plan and Design
• Build and Use Model
• Verify and Validate
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document primarily covers the Build and Use Model, Verify and Validate, Deploy, and Operate and Monitor stages of the AI lifecycle, focusing on training, testing, experimentation, and evaluation of robotic autonomous systems including unmanned aircraft systems. It emphasizes development of tactics and procedures, prototype evaluation, and integration for rapid fielding.

Technical Scope

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

• AI Systems
• Task-specific AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly mentions AI systems in the form of robotic autonomous systems, unmanned aircraft systems, and counter-unmanned aircraft systems. It focuses on military applications of autonomous systems but does not reference frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, or compute thresholds. The emphasis is on task-specific autonomous systems for defense applications.