National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, Section 233 ("Limitation on use of funds for certain navy software")

• 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

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

• Governance failure

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

This document has minimal risk domain coverage, primarily addressing governance failure (6.5) through its focus on oversight mechanisms for Navy software programs. It implicitly touches on system safety concerns (7.3) through requirements for performance assessments and capability validation.

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 exclusively governs the National Security sector, specifically addressing AI systems (autonomy software) for Navy unmanned surface vessels. It establishes oversight requirements for military AI development and deployment programs.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding statutory provision within the National Defense Authorization Act that prohibits the expenditure of federal funds unless specific reporting and validation requirements are met, with mandatory language and enforcement through budgetary control.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress
• Summary: The document is Section 233 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_Developer, AI_Deployer
• Entities: United States Navy; Secretary of the Navy; Chief of Naval Operations
• Summary: The document specifically targets the Navy's unmanned vessel software programs, restricting how the Navy can develop, procure, and operate autonomy systems. The Secretary of the Navy and Chief of Naval Operations are the specific entities subject to the requirements.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Congressional defense committees; United States Congress
• Summary: The congressional defense committees enforce compliance through their oversight authority and control of appropriations. The funding limitation mechanism gives Congress enforcement power by prohibiting expenditure of funds unless conditions are met.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Congressional defense committees; Defense Innovation Unit
• Summary: The congressional defense committees monitor compliance through required submissions of schedules, cost estimates, test reports, and assessments. The Defense Innovation Unit provides market assessments that support monitoring of program performance against industry capabilities.

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 covers multiple AI lifecycle stages with primary focus on Verify and Validate, Deploy, and Operate and Monitor stages. It requires comprehensive reporting on testing, performance assessments, and operational validation before deployment can proceed.

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 addresses AI systems (autonomy baseline manager and common control system) for unmanned surface vessels. It does not use terminology like frontier AI, general purpose AI, or foundation models, focusing instead on specific military autonomy systems.