I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1229
To enhance bilateral defense cooperation between the United States and
Israel, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY12, 2025
Mr. W
ILSONof South Carolina (for himself and Mr. NORCROSS) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Serv-
ices, and in addition to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, for a period
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
A BILL
To enhance bilateral defense cooperation between the United
States and Israel, 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 ‘‘United States-Israel 4
Defense Partnership Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 6
It is the sense of Congress that— 7
(1) the United States and Israel— 8
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(A) are bound closely by historic and cul-1
tural ties and mutual interests; and 2
(B) face common threats, which are con-3
stantly evolving in scope, scale, and lethality; 4
(2) to most effectively counter such shared 5
threats, the United States and Israel must expand 6
their defense partnership to develop new technologies 7
and leverage the unique capabilities offered by de-8
fense industrial base of each country; and 9
(3) this Act furthers such goal through the es-10
tablishment of several joint initiatives. 11
SEC. 3. UNITED STATES-ISRAEL PROGRAM ON COUN-12
TERING UNMANNED SYSTEMS. 13
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-14
ings: 15
(1) The increasing use of unmanned systems by 16
state and nonstate actors poses a significant threat 17
to the national security of the United States and its 18
allies, including Israel. 19
(2) Cooperation in developing and deploying 20
counter-unmanned systems technology will enhance 21
mutual security and strengthen bilateral defense ca-22
pabilities. 23
(3) Israel is a global leader in the development 24
of advanced counter-unmanned systems technologies, 25
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and a cooperative program will leverage shared ex-1
pertise and resources to address evolving threats. 2
(b) E
STABLISHMENT.— 3
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of Defense, 4
with the concurrence of the Minister of Defense of 5
Israel, shall establish a cooperative program between 6
the United States and Israel, to be known as the 7
‘‘United States-Israel Counter-Unmanned Systems 8
Program’’, for the purpose of enhancing cooperation 9
between the United States and Israel for purposes 10
of— 11
(A) developing, testing, evaluating, and de-12
ploying advanced technologies for countering 13
unmanned systems that threaten the United 14
States and Israel; 15
(B) sharing technical expertise and data 16
on emerging unmanned systems and related 17
threats; 18
(C) conducting joint research and develop-19
ment initiatives; and 20
(D) deploying and integrating counter-un-21
manned systems for mutual defense. 22
(2) A
CTIVITIES.—The program established 23
under this subsection shall include the following: 24
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(A) Collaborative research initiatives in-1
volving government, private sector, and aca-2
demic institutions in the United States and 3
Israel, conducted in a manner that protects sen-4
sitive technology and information and the na-5
tional security interests of the United States 6
and Israel. 7
(B) Joint training exercises and informa-8
tion-sharing mechanisms to enhance operational 9
readiness of personnel of the United States and 10
of Israel. 11
(C) The establishment, within the Depart-12
ment of Defense, of a United States-Israel 13
Counter-Unmanned Systems Program Office to 14
oversee program execution and coordination. 15
(D) The procurement and deployment of 16
counter-unmanned systems. 17
(c) A
NNUALREPORT.— 18
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 19
the date of the enactment of this Act, and annually 20
thereafter, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to 21
the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and 22
the Committee on Armed Services of the House of 23
Representatives a report on the implementation of 24
the program established under this section. 25
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(2) ELEMENTS.—Each report required by para-1
graph (1) shall include, for the preceding year— 2
(A) a description of activities conducted 3
under the program; 4
(B) an assessment of progress made in ad-5
dressing unmanned systems threats and re-6
quirements; 7
(C) an assessment of the program’s col-8
laboration with other relevant United States 9
Government programs, including the United 10
States-Israel Operations-Technology Working 11
Group and Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems 12
program run by the Irregular Warfare Tech-13
nical Support Directorate; and 14
(D) recommendations for future program 15
activities and funding. 16
(3) F
ORM.—Each report submitted under para-17
graph (1) shall be submitted in unclassified form but 18
may include a classified annex as necessary to pro-19
tect sensitive information. 20
(d) A
UTHORIZATION OFAPPROPRIATIONS.—There is 21
authorized to be appropriated $150,000,000 for each of 22
fiscal years 2026 through 2030 to carry out the program 23
under this section. 24
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(e) RULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-1
tion shall be construed to alter or supersede agreements 2
or obligations between the United States and Israel in ex-3
istence on the date of the enactment of this Act. 4
SEC. 4. EXTENSION AND MODIFICATION OF UNITED 5
STATES-ISRAEL ANTI-TUNNEL COOPERATION. 6
Section 1279 of the National Defense Authorization 7
Act for Fiscal Year 2016 (Public Law 114–92; 22 U.S.C. 8
8606 note) is amended— 9
(1) in subsection (b)(4), by striking 10
‘‘$50,000,000’’ and inserting ‘‘$80,000,000’’; and 11
(2) in subsection (f), by striking ‘‘December 31, 12
2026’’ and inserting ‘‘December 31, 2028’’. 13
SEC. 5. EXTENSION AND MODIFICATION OF UNITED 14
STATES-ISRAEL COOPERATION TO COUNTER 15
UNMANNED AERIAL SYSTEMS. 16
Section 1278 of the National Defense Authorization 17
Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (22 U.S.C. 8606 note) is amend-18
ed— 19
(1) in subsection (b)(4), by striking 20
‘‘$55,000,000’’ and inserting ‘‘$75,000,000’’; and 21
(2) in subsection (f), by striking ‘‘December 31, 22
2026’’ and inserting ‘‘December 31, 2028’’. 23
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SEC. 6. UNITED STATES-ISRAEL EMERGING TECHNOLOGY 1
CAPABILITIES COOPERATION. 2
(a) S
TATEMENT OFPOLICY.—It is the policy of the 3
United States to support and encourage further defense 4
collaboration with Israel in areas of emerging technologies 5
capable of enabling the warfare capabilities of both the 6
United States and Israel to meet emerging defense chal-7
lenges, including in the areas of artificial intelligence, cy-8
bersecurity, robotics, quantum, and automation. 9
(b) A
UTHORITYTOESTABLISHEMERGINGDEFENSE 10
T
ECHNOLOGYCAPABILITIESPROGRAMWITHISRAEL.— 11
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of Defense, 12
upon request by the Ministry of Defense of Israel 13
and in consultation with the Secretary of State and 14
the Director of National Intelligence, is authorized 15
to carry out, jointly with Israel, research, develop-16
ment, test, and evaluation in areas of emerging tech-17
nologies capable of enabling the warfare capabilities 18
of the United States and Israel to meet emerging de-19
fense challenges, including in the areas of artificial 20
intelligence, cybersecurity, robotics, quantum, and 21
automation. 22
(2) P
ROTECTION OF SENSITIVE INFORMA -23
TION.—Any activity carried out pursuant to the au-24
thority provided by paragraph (1) shall be conducted 25
in a manner that appropriately protects sensitive in-26
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formation and the national security interests of the 1
United States and Israel. 2
(3) R
EPORT.—None of the activities described 3
in paragraph (1) may be carried out until the date 4
on which the Secretary of Defense submits to the 5
Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and 6
the House of Representatives a report that sets 7
forth the following: 8
(A) A memorandum of agreement between 9
the United States and Israel regarding sharing 10
of research and development costs for the capa-11
bilities described in paragraph (1), and any 12
supporting documents. 13
(B) A certification that such memorandum 14
of agreement— 15
(i) requires sharing of costs of 16
projects, including in-kind support, be-17
tween the United States and Israel; 18
(ii) establishes a framework to nego-19
tiate the rights to any intellectual property 20
developed under the memorandum of 21
agreement; and 22
(iii) requires the United States Gov-23
ernment to receive semiannual reports on 24
expenditure of funds, if any, by the Gov-25
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ernment of Israel, including a description 1
of what the funds have been used for, 2
when funds were expended, and an identi-3
fication of entities that expended the 4
funds. 5
(c) L
EADAGENCY.—Not earlier than the date on 6
which the Secretary of Defense submits the report re-7
quired by subsection (b)(3), the Secretary of Defense shall 8
designate the Irregular Warfare Technology Support Di-9
rectorate as the lead agency of the Department of Defense 10
in carrying out this section. 11
(d) S
EMIANNUALREPORTS.—The Secretary of De-12
fense shall submit to the appropriate committees of Con-13
gress on a semiannual basis a report that contains a copy 14
of the most recent semiannual report provided by the Gov-15
ernment of Israel to the Department of Defense pursuant 16
to subsection (b)(3)(B)(iii). 17
(e) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 18
authorized to be appropriated $50,000,000 for each of fis-19
cal years 2026 through 2030 to carry out the program 20
under this section. 21
SEC. 7. EXTENSION OF WAR RESERVES STOCKPILE AU-22
THORITY. 23
Section 12001(d) of the Department of Defense Ap-24
propriations Act, 2005 (Public Law 108–287; 118 Stat. 25
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1011) is amended by striking ‘‘after January 1, 2027’’ 1
and inserting ‘‘after January 1 2029’’. 2
SEC. 8. ESTABLISHMENT OF DEFENSE INNOVATION UNIT 3
OFFICE IN ISRAEL. 4
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact-5
ment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall establish 6
in Israel a Defense Innovation Unit office — 7
(1) to engage the Minister of Defense of Israel 8
and representatives of the private sector in collabo-9
rative efforts to counter development by Iran of 10
dual-use defense technologies; and 11
(2) to leverage resources and innovation activi-12
ties of the United States and Israel for the benefit 13
of the national security of the United States and 14
Israel. 15
SEC. 9. NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRIAL BASE. 16
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 17
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense 18
shall seek to engage the Minister of Defense of Israel in 19
a discussion of the process of the ascension of Israel into 20
the national technology and industrial base (as defined in 21
section 4801 of title 10, United States Code). 22
(b) P
ROTECTION OFSENSITIVEINFORMATION.—Any 23
activity carried out pursuant to the authority provided by 24
subsection (a) shall be conducted in a manner that appro-25
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priately protects sensitive information and the national se-1
curity interests of the United States and Israel. 2
SEC. 10. ASSESSMENT OF INTEGRATED AIR AND MISSILE 3
DEFENSE IN REGION COVERED BY UNITED 4
STATES CENTRAL COMMAND. 5
(a) A
SSESSMENTREQUIRED.—The Secretary of De-6
fense shall conduct an assessment of the integrated air 7
and missile defense in the region cover by United States 8
Central Command. 9
(b) E
LEMENTS.—The assessment conducted pursu-10
ant to subsection (a) shall cover the following: 11
(1) The current strength of the integrated air 12
and missile defense in the region described in sub-13
section (a). 14
(2) How best to strengthen the integrated air 15
and missile defense described in paragraph (1). 16
(3) What would be required to expand or deep-17
en cooperation among the United States, Israel, and 18
other regional partners of the United States to 19
achieve full operational capability of the integrated 20
air and missile defense described in paragraph (1), 21
including identification of the amount of funding 22
and new legal authorities that may be required for 23
such expansion or deepening. 24
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(c) CONSIDERATIONS.—In carrying out the assess-1
ment required by subsection (a), the Secretary shall con-2
sider the following: 3
(1) The strategy required by section 1658(b) of 4
James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization 5
Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (Public Law 117–263). 6
(2) Current cooperation among partners of the 7
United States in the region described by subsection 8
(a) on integrated air and missile defense. 9
(3) Lessons learned in countering the April 13, 10
2024, and October 1, 2024, airstrikes by Iran 11
against Israel. 12
(d) R
EPORT.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 14
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec-15
retary of Defense shall submit to the Committees on 16
Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Rep-17
resentatives a report on the assessment conducted 18
under this section. 19
(2) F
ORM.—The report required by paragraph 20
(1) shall be submitted in unclassified form but may 21
contain a classified annex. 22
Æ
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