S.Amdt. 5780

SA 5780. Mr. TOOMEY submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 5499 submitted by Mr. Reed (for himself and Mr. Inhofe) and intended to be proposed to the bill H.R. 7900, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2023 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 D of title I, add the following:

SEC. 144. PROCUREMENT AUTHORITY FOR COMMERCIAL ENGINEERING SOFTWARE.

4 (a) Procurement Authority.--The Secretary of the Air Force may enter into one or more contracts for 6 the procurement of commercial engineering software to 7 meet the digital transformation goals and objectives of the 8 Department of the Air Force.

(b) Inclusion Of Program Element In Budget Materials.--In the materials submitted by the Secretary of the Air Force in support of the budget of the President 2 for fiscal year 2024 (as submitted to Congress pursuant 3 to section 1105 of title 31, United States Code), the Secretary shall include a program element dedicated to the 5 procurement and management of the commercial engineer- 6 ing software described in subsection (a).

(c) Review.--ln carrying out subsection (a), the Secretary of the Air Force shall--

(1) review the commercial physics-based simulation marketspace; and

(2) conduct research on providers of commercial software capabilities that have the potential to expedite the progress of digital engineering initiatives across the weapon system enterprise, with a particular focus on capabilities that have the potential to generate significant life-cycle cost savings, streamline and accelerate weapon system acquisition, and provide data-driven approaches to inform investments by the Department of the Air Force.

(d) Report.--Not later than March 1, 2023, the Secretary of the Air Force shall submit to the congressional defense committees a report that includes--

(1) an analysis of specific physics-based simulation capability manufacturers that deliver high mission impact with broad reach into the weapon system enterprise of the Department of the Air Force; and

(2) a prioritized list of programs and offices of the Department of the Air Force that could better utilize commercial physics-based modeling and simulation and opportunities for the implementation of such modeling and simulation capabilities within the Department.