I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2973
To require the Secretary of Defense to develop, in cooperation with allies
and partners in the Middle East, an integrated maritime domain aware-
ness and interdiction capability, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL27, 2023
Mrs. R
ODGERSof Washington (for herself, Mr. SCHNEIDER, Mr. TRONE, Mrs.
W
AGNER, Mr. BACON, and Mr. PANETTA) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition
to the Committee on Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently de-
termined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Defense to develop, in coopera-
tion with allies and partners in the Middle East, an
integrated maritime domain awareness and interdiction
capability, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Maritime Architecture 4
and Response to International Terrorism In the Middle 5
East Act of 2023’’ or the ‘‘MARITIME Act of 2023’’. 6
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•HR 2973 IH
SEC. 2. MIDDLE EAST INTEGRATED MARITIME DOMAIN 1
AWARENESS AND INTERDICTION CAPA-2
BILITY. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary of Defense, in con-4
sultation with the Secretary of State, shall seek to build 5
upon the historic opportunities created by the Abraham 6
Accords and the incorporation of Israel into the area of 7
responsibility of the United States Central Command to 8
develop a Middle East integrated maritime domain aware-9
ness and interdiction capability for the purpose of pro-10
tecting the people, infrastructure, and territory of such 11
countries from— 12
(1) manned and unmanned naval systems, un-13
dersea warfare capabilities, and anti-ship missiles of 14
Iran and groups affiliated with Iran; and 15
(2) violent extremist organizations, criminal 16
networks, and piracy activities that threaten lawful 17
commerce in the waterways within the area of re-18
sponsibility of the United States Naval Forces Cen-19
tral Command. 20
(b) S
TRATEGY.— 21
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after 22
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 23
of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of 24
State, shall submit to the appropriate committees of 25
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•HR 2973 IH
Congress a strategy for the cooperation described in 1
subsection (a). 2
(2) M
ATTERS TO BE INCLUDED .—The strategy 3
required by paragraph (1) shall include the fol-4
lowing: 5
(A) An assessment of the threats posed to 6
ally or partner countries in the Middle East 7
by— 8
(i) manned and unmanned naval sys-9
tems, undersea warfare capabilities, and 10
anti-ship missiles of Iran and groups affili-11
ated with Iran; and 12
(ii) violent extremist organizations, 13
criminal networks, and piracy activities 14
that threaten lawful commerce in the wa-15
terways within the area of responsibility of 16
the United States Naval Forces Central 17
Command. 18
(B) A description of existing multilateral 19
maritime partnerships currently led by the 20
United States Naval Forces Central Command, 21
including the Combined Maritime Forces (in-22
cluding its associated Task Forces 150, 151, 23
152, and 153), the International Maritime Se-24
curity Construct, and the Navy’s Task Force 25
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•HR 2973 IH
59, and a discussion of the role of such partner-1
ships in building an integrated maritime secu-2
rity capability. 3
(C) A description of progress made in ad-4
vancing the integration of Israel into the exist-5
ing multilateral maritime partnerships de-6
scribed in subparagraph (B). 7
(D) A description of efforts among coun-8
tries in the Middle East to coordinate intel-9
ligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance capa-10
bilities and indicators and warnings with re-11
spect to the threats described in subparagraph 12
(A), and a description of any impediment to op-13
timizing such efforts. 14
(E) A description of the current Depart-15
ment of Defense systems that, in coordination 16
with ally and partner countries in the Middle 17
East— 18
(i) provide awareness of and defend 19
against such threats; and 20
(ii) address current capability gaps. 21
(F) An explanation of the manner in which 22
an integrated maritime domain awareness and 23
interdiction architecture would improve collec-24
tive security in the Middle East. 25
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•HR 2973 IH
(G) A description of existing and planned 1
efforts to engage ally and partner countries in 2
the Middle East in establishing such an archi-3
tecture. 4
(H) An identification of the elements of 5
such an architecture that may be acquired and 6
operated by ally and partner countries in the 7
Middle East, and a list of such elements for 8
each such ally and partner. 9
(I) An identification of the elements of 10
such an architecture that may only be provided 11
and operated by members of the United States 12
Armed Forces. 13
(J) An identification of any challenge to 14
optimizing such an architecture in the Middle 15
East. 16
(K) An assessment of progress and key 17
challenges in the implementation of the strategy 18
required by paragraph (1) using the metrics 19
identified in accordance with paragraph (3). 20
(L) Recommendations for improvements in 21
the implementation of such strategy based on 22
such metrics. 23
(M) An assessment of any capabilities or 24
lessons from the Navy’s Task Force 59 that 25
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•HR 2973 IH
may be leveraged to support an integrated mar-1
itime domain awareness and interdiction capa-2
bility in the Middle East. 3
(N) Any other matter the Secretary of De-4
fense considers relevant. 5
(3) M
ETRICS.—The Secretary of Defense shall 6
identify metrics to assess progress in the implemen-7
tation of the strategy required by paragraph (1). 8
(4) F
ORMAT.—The strategy required by para-9
graph (1) shall be submitted in unclassified form but 10
may include a classified annex. 11
(c) F
EASIBILITYSTUDY.— 12
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of Defense 13
shall conduct a study on the feasibility and advis-14
ability of establishing a fund for an integrated mari-15
time domain awareness and interdiction capability to 16
protect the people, infrastructure, and territory of 17
ally and partner countries in the Middle East 18
from— 19
(A) manned and unmanned naval systems, 20
undersea warfare capabilities, and anti-ship 21
missiles of Iran and groups affiliated with Iran; 22
and 23
(B) violent extremist organizations, crimi-24
nal networks, and piracy activities that threaten 25
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•HR 2973 IH
lawful commerce in the waterways of the Middle 1
East. 2
(2) E
LEMENT.—The study required by para-3
graph (1) shall include an assessment of funds that 4
could be contributed by ally and partner countries of 5
the United States. 6
(3) R
EPORT.—Not later than 90 days after the 7
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 8
Defense shall submit to the appropriate committees 9
of Congress a report on the results of the study con-10
ducted under paragraph (1). 11
(d) P
ROTECTION OFSENSITIVEINFORMATION.—Any 12
activity carried out under this section shall be conducted 13
in a manner that appropriately protects sensitive informa-14
tion and the national security interests of the United 15
States. 16
(e) A
PPROPRIATECOMMITTEES OF CONGRESSDE-17
FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate commit-18
tees of Congress’’ means— 19
(1) the Committee on Armed Services, the 20
Committee on Appropriations, the Committee on 21
Foreign Relations, and the Select Committee on In-22
telligence of the Senate; and 23
(2) the Committee on Armed Services, the 24
Committee on Appropriations, the Committee on 25
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•HR 2973 IH
Foreign Affairs, and the Permanent Select Com-1
mittee on Intelligence of the House of Representa-2
tives. 3
Æ
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