S.Amdt. 6244

SA 6244, submitted by Ms. Hassan, aims to add a new section (SEC. 1510A) to bill S. 4784. The purpose of this amendment is to require the Secretary of Defense to provide a report to specific House and Senate committees regarding risks to the Global Positioning System (GPS) and associated positioning, navigation, and timing services.

The amendment requires the report to include:

• Risk Descriptions: Details on risks caused by a lack of access to these services during a potential conflict involving the United States or an attack on a United States ally, and risks to allies if the United States disrupts their access to these services.

• Assessments:

  • The ability of competitor countries (the People's Republic of China, the Russian Federation, Iran, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) to deny or degrade United States access to these services.
  • Current Department of Defense work to get redundant capabilities, including terrestrial-based efforts like quantum sensing technology and space-based efforts.
  • Whether the Space Force's Resilient Global Positioning System (R-GPS) program can reach full capacity to provide resilience to existing satellites within 10 years.

• Redundancy Framework: A plan to develop a full-scale terrestrial-based GPS redundancy system that could be operational within 15 years.

The report must be submitted in unclassified form, though it may have a classified annex, and must be delivered no later than one year after the Act is enacted.