II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1334
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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
APRIL27, 2023
Ms. R
OSEN(for herself, Ms. ERNST, Mr. BOOKER, and Mr. LANKFORD) intro-
duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com-
mittee on Foreign Relations
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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•S 1334 IS
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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•S 1334 IS
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 (including its Coalition Task 25
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•S 1334 IS
Force SENTINEL), and the Navy’s Task 1
Force 59, and a discussion of the role of such 2
partnerships in building an integrated maritime 3
security capability. 4
(C) A description of efforts made and les-5
sons learned in advancing the integration of 6
Israel into the existing multilateral maritime 7
partnerships described in subparagraph (B). 8
(D) A description of efforts among coun-9
tries in the Middle East to coordinate intel-10
ligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance capa-11
bilities and indicators and warnings with re-12
spect to the threats described in subparagraph 13
(A), and a description of any impediment to op-14
timizing such efforts. 15
(E) A description of the current Depart-16
ment of Defense systems that, in coordination 17
with ally and partner countries in the Middle 18
East— 19
(i) provide awareness of and defend 20
against such threats; and 21
(ii) address current capability gaps. 22
(F) An explanation of the manner in which 23
an integrated maritime domain awareness and 24
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•S 1334 IS
interdiction architecture would improve collec-1
tive security in the Middle East. 2
(G) A description of existing and planned 3
efforts to engage ally and partner countries in 4
the Middle East in establishing such an archi-5
tecture. 6
(H) An identification of the elements of 7
such an architecture that may be acquired and 8
operated by ally and partner countries in the 9
Middle East, and a list of such elements for 10
each such ally and partner. 11
(I) An identification of the elements of 12
such an architecture that may only be provided 13
and operated by members of the United States 14
Armed Forces. 15
(J) An identification of any challenge to 16
optimizing such an architecture in the Middle 17
East. 18
(K) An assessment of progress and key 19
challenges in the implementation of the strategy 20
required by paragraph (1) using the metrics 21
identified in accordance with paragraph (3). 22
(L) Recommendations for improvements in 23
the implementation of such strategy based on 24
such metrics. 25
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•S 1334 IS
(M) An assessment of any capabilities or 1
lessons from the Navy’s Task Force 59 that 2
may be leveraged to support an integrated mar-3
itime domain awareness and interdiction capa-4
bility in the Middle East. 5
(N) A description and assessment of the 6
joint bilateral and multinational maritime exer-7
cises conducted in the Middle East since the es-8
tablishment of the Navy’s Task Force 59, in-9
cluding a discussion of the manner in which 10
such exercises have impacted the efforts and 11
lessons detailed under subparagraphs (C), (D), 12
and (M). 13
(O) A description of collaboration opportu-14
nities between the intelligence, reconnaissance, 15
and surveillance capabilities of the Navy’s Task 16
Force 59 and the Air Force’s Task Force 99 to 17
support a joint-service approach to maritime 18
domain awareness with sea-based and air-based 19
unmanned assets. 20
(P) Any other matter the Secretary of De-21
fense considers relevant. 22
(3) M
ETRICS.—The Secretary of Defense shall 23
identify metrics to assess progress in the implemen-24
tation of the strategy required by paragraph (1). 25
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(4) FORMAT.—The strategy required by para-1
graph (1) shall be submitted in unclassified form but 2
may include a classified annex. 3
(c) F
EASIBILITYSTUDY.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of Defense 5
shall conduct a study on the feasibility and advis-6
ability of establishing a fund for an integrated mari-7
time domain awareness and interdiction capability to 8
protect the people, infrastructure, and territory of 9
ally and partner countries in the Middle East 10
from— 11
(A) manned and unmanned naval systems, 12
undersea warfare capabilities, and anti-ship 13
missiles of Iran and groups affiliated with Iran; 14
and 15
(B) violent extremist organizations, crimi-16
nal networks, and piracy activities that threaten 17
lawful commerce in the waterways of the Middle 18
East. 19
(2) E
LEMENT.—The study required by para-20
graph (1) shall include an assessment of funds that 21
could be contributed by ally and partner countries of 22
the United States. 23
(3) R
EPORT.—Not later than 90 days after the 24
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 25
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Defense shall submit to the appropriate committees 1
of Congress a report on the results of the study con-2
ducted under paragraph (1). 3
(d) P
ROTECTION OFSENSITIVEINFORMATION.—Any 4
activity carried out under this section shall be conducted 5
in a manner that appropriately protects sensitive informa-6
tion and the national security interests of the United 7
States. 8
(e) A
PPROPRIATECOMMITTEES OF CONGRESSDE-9
FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate commit-10
tees of Congress’’ means— 11
(1) the Committee on Armed Services, the 12
Committee on Appropriations, the Committee on 13
Foreign Relations, and the Select Committee on In-14
telligence of the Senate; and 15
(2) the Committee on Armed Services, the 16
Committee on Appropriations, the Committee on 17
Foreign Affairs, and the Permanent Select Com-18
mittee on Intelligence of the House of Representa-19
tives. 20
Æ
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