Source: Defense News
By Joe Gould
The Senate Armed Services Committee passed a version of the $716 billion defense policy bill Thursday that emphasizes investment in future warfare — with provisions on cyber, hypersonic weapons and artificial intelligence.
Its National Defense Authorization Act would sprinkle $600 million more than the Trump administration budget requests into science, technology and testing programs, to include hypersonics, space constellation technologies, rocket propulsion, directed energy and quantum information science — the “key to advancing warfighting capabilities,” according to a summary of the bill released Thursday.
The panel approved the massive bill after meeting behind closed doors this week, but the text of the bill itself is not expected for about another week. The panel was steered by its No. 2 Republican, Sen. Jim Inhofe, of Oklahoma, as its chairman, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was battling brain cancer at home in Arizona.
The NDAA is several steps from becoming law. The House passed its version of the legislation earlier Thursday, and the Senate must pass its version of the bill before the two versions are reconciled over the summer into a final bill for both chambers to pass.
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