S.Amdt. 2542

SA 2542. Mr. SCHUMER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 4638, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2025 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 appropriate place in title II, insert the following:

SEC. __. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE-ENABLED WEAPON SYSTEMS
CENTER OF EXCELLENCE.

(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The conflict in Ukraine has emerged as a proving ground
for new artificial intelligence-powered military technology,
including drones and other vehicles capable of using
artificial intelligence to navigate Global Positioning
System-denied environments.
(2) Ukrainian companies have claimed to have fielded fully
autonomous weapons that can select and engage targets without
intervention by a human operator.
(3) Russian military forces have recognized the disruptive
power of artificial intelligence-enabled weapon systems and
are quickly learning from battlefield experience and rapidly
adapting.
(4) The Government of the Russian Federation is using these
lessons to inform its own weapons systems, develop
countermeasures, and proliferate this technology to other
adversaries.
(5) As a result, it is critical that the Department of
Defense be postured to leverage data and artificial
intelligence insights garnered from the conflict in Ukraine
to optimize United States operations, logistics, and
decision-making processes
(b) Establishment of Center of Excellence.--The Under
Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, in
coordination with the Chief Digital and Artificial
Intelligence Officer, shall establish an Artificial
Intelligence-Enabled Weapon Systems Center of Excellence (in
this section referred to as the ``Center''). The Center
shall--
(1) create a hub of excellence for the latest advancements
in artificial intelligence-enabled weapon systems,
countermeasures, and training methodologies;
(2) facilitate collaboration among the Department of
Defense and foreign partners, including Ukraine, to identify
and promulgate best practices, standards, and benchmarks;
(3) facilitate collaboration among the Department of
Defense and industry and academia in the United States,
including innovative United States technology companies with
expertise in artificial intelligence-enabled systems and
autonomous and semi-autonomous weapons;
(4) serve as a premier training location for the Department
of Defense; and
(5) carry out such other responsibilities as the Under
Secretary determines appropriate.
(c) Report.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Under Secretary of Defense for
Research and Engineering shall submit to the congressional
defense committees a report that includes the plan for the
establishment of the Center and provide the committees a
briefing on the plan.
(d) Artificial Intelligence-enabled Weapon System
Defined.--In this section, the term ``artificial
intelligence-enabled weapon system'' includes AI-enabled
autonomous unmanned aerial systems, autonomous unmanned
surface vessels, and other lethal autonomous and semi-
autonomous weapon systems as determined by the Under
Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.
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