S.Amdt. 2260

SA 2260. Mr. LOTT submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill H.R. 1585, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2008 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle C of title XV, add the following:

SEC. 1535. FIRE SCOUT CLASS IV VERTICAL TAKEOFF UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE.

(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:

(1) The Army has purchased MQ-8B Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to satisfy the requirement for Class IV unmanned aerial vehicles under its Future Combat Systems program.

(2) The MQ-8B Fire Scout Class IV Vertical Takeoff Unmanned Aerial Vehicle is based on the highly successful RQ-8A Vertical Takeoff Unmanned Aerial Vehicle System developed for the Navy, and is currently in test and evaluation having successfully completed more than 200 test flights since May 2002.

(3) Production of at least six Army MQ-8B Fire Scout Class IV Vertical Takeoff Unmanned Aerial Vehicles has been completed, and final flight testing has been delayed until 2010.

(4) The United States Central Command has an urgent requirement for persistent command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems in support of ongoing operations.

(5) There are at least six Army MQ-8B Fire Scout Class IV Vertical Takeoff Unmanned Aerial Vehicle aircraft available today that could be outfitted with appropriate sensors and deployed to rapidly satisfy the requirements of the United States Central Command.

(b) Program Required.--The Secretary of Defense shall take appropriate actions to field not less than six existing Army Fire Scout Class IV Vertical Takeoff Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, with appropriate sensors and communications capabilities and requisite ground control stations, for deployment to the United States Central Command area of operations by not later than February 2008.

(c) Funding.--Amounts authorized to be appropriated by this title may be available for procurement for purposes of subsection (b).

(d) Report.--Not later than December 1, 2007, the Secretary of the Army shall submit to the congressional defense committees a report describing the progress made toward meeting the requirements of subsection (b).