S.Amdt. 1846

SA 1846. Mr. WARNER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to
amendment SA 1463 proposed by Mr. McCain to the bill H.R. 1735, to
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2016 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 A of title XVI, add the following:

[[Page S3880]]

SEC. 1614. COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR
PLANNING AND ACQUIRING SATELLITE SYSTEMS AND
ARCHITECTURES.

(a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of the Congress
that--
(1) consistent with National Space Policy issued on June
28, 2010, the United States Government should make maximum
use of mature commercial space capabilities and acquisition
practices for national security systems for which the
required performance can be met with commodity technology to
reduce acquisition timelines and costs, promote competition,
capitalize on the pace of commercial technology advances, and
avoid unnecessary government-unique investments;
(2) investments by elements of the intelligence community
and the Department of Defense in technology development
utilizing a unique, dedicated industrial base should be
reserved for cases in which commercial commodity technology
does not exist or in which revolutionary technology is judged
to be achievable and worth the risk, cost, and time to
acquire;
(3) satellite systems and architectures should be designed
in such a way that a number of elements common to multiple
spacecraft could be standardized, to reduce costs, simplify
execution, and preserve a competitive industrial base;
(4) the entire overhead satellite architecture of the
United States, including programs funded by the Department of
Defense or by an element of the intelligence community,
commercial providers, and foreign partners, should be viewed
and treated as an integrated whole, not simply as a series of
independent and unrelated satellite systems;
(5) deficiencies in, and improvements to, the current state
of the space systems architecture, and planning for the
future architecture, should receive priority personal
attention from the President, the senior national security
and scientific advisors to the President, the Director of
National Intelligence, the Secretary of Defense, and the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to ensure that
architecture planning--
(A) meets the needs of the United States in peace time and
in war time;
(B) responsibly stewards the taxpayers' dollars;
(C) accurately takes into account cost and performance
tradeoffs;
(D) meets realistic requirements;
(E) produces and fosters excellence, innovation, and
competition;
(F) aims to produce innovative satellite systems in less
than 5 years that are able to leverage common, standardized
design elements and commercially available technologies;
(G) takes advantage of rapid advances in commercial
technology, innovation, and commercial-like acquisition
practices; and
(H) fosters competition and a robust industrial base.
(b) Strategy on the United States Overhead Satellite
Architecture.--
(1) Requirement for strategy.--The Director of National
Intelligence, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff shall develop a strategy, with
milestones and benchmarks, to ensure that there is a
comprehensive review of policies and practices for planning
and acquiring satellite systems and architectures, including
under programs of the Department of Defense, programs of
elements of the intelligence community, and programs carried
out by the commercial satellite industry, and taking into
account capabilities of foreign partners, to ensure that such
systems and architectures comport with the principles
expressed under subsection (a) and in the National Space
Policy.
(2) Report on strategy.--Not later than 180 days after the
date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of National
Intelligence, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff shall report to the congressional
defense committees, the Select Committee on Intelligence of
the Senate, and the Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence of the House of Representatives on the strategy
required by paragraph (1).
______