I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2327
To require the Secretary of the Air Force to take steps to ensure the
continued production and procurement of advanced capability fighter
aircraft and fifth generation fighter aircraft until the fighter units of
the Air National Guard are fully recapitalized, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH25, 2025
Mr. J
AMES(for himself and Mr. DAVISof North Carolina) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services
A BILL
To require the Secretary of the Air Force to take steps
to ensure the continued production and procurement of
advanced capability fighter aircraft and fifth generation
fighter aircraft until the fighter units of the Air National
Guard are fully recapitalized, 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 ‘‘Air National Guard 4
Squadron Preservation Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 1
It is the policy of the United States to maintain the 2
capabilities, experience, and strength of the Total Fighter 3
Force needed to confront any threats by ensuring that the 4
service retain force structure through the fighter aircraft 5
squadrons across the Air National Guard are fully recapi-6
talized. 7
SEC. 3. RECAPITALIZATION OF AIR NATIONAL GUARD 8
FIGHTER FLEET. 9
(a) P
LAN FORSUSTAINMENT AND RECAPITALIZA-10
TION OFAIRNATIONALGUARDFIGHTERFLEET.—Sec-11
tion 154(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act 12
for Fiscal Year 2025 (Public Law 118–159) is amended 13
by inserting ‘‘, fifth generation fighter aircraft,’’ after 14
‘‘legacy capability fighter aircraft’’. 15
(b) P
ROCUREMENT OF FIGHTERAIRCRAFT.— 16
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Air 17
Force shall take such steps as may be necessary to 18
ensure the continued production and procurement of 19
at least one model of advanced capability fighter air-20
craft and at least one model of fifth generation 21
fighter aircraft until the date on which the Secretary 22
certifies to the congressional defense committees 23
that the Secretary has replaced all legacy capability 24
fighter aircraft within each covered Air National 25
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Guard fighter unit with an advanced capability 1
fighter aircraft or fifth generation fighter aircraft. 2
(2) C
ONTRACTS.—For purposes of fulfilling the 3
requirements of paragraph (1), the Secretary shall— 4
(A) seek to enter into a contract for the 5
procurement of advanced capability fighter air-6
craft and fifth generation fighter aircraft; or 7
(B) modify a contract to provide for the 8
procurement of additional advanced capability 9
fighter aircraft and fifth generation fighter air-10
craft. 11
(3) GAO
REVIEW AND REPORT .— 12
(A) R
EVIEW.—The Comptroller General of 13
the United States shall conduct a review of ad-14
vanced capability fighter aircraft. Such review 15
shall include— 16
(i) an assessment of any challenges to 17
the procurement of such aircraft by the 18
Secretary; and 19
(ii) recommendations on how to solve 20
such challenges. 21
(B) B
RIEFING.—Not later than one year 22
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 23
Comptroller General shall provide to the con-24
gressional defense committees a briefing on the 25
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preliminary findings of the review conducted 1
under subparagraph (A). 2
(C) R
EPORT.—Not later than 30 days 3
after the Comptroller General provides a brief-4
ing under subparagraph (B), the Comptroller 5
General shall submit to the congressional de-6
fense committees a final report on the review 7
conducted under subparagraph (A). 8
(4) R
EPORT ON PROGRESS .—Not later than 9
180 days after the Comptroller General provides a 10
report under paragraph (3)(C) and on an annual 11
basis thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to the 12
congressional defense committees a report on the 13
progress of the Secretary in— 14
(A) implementing the recommendations of 15
the Comptroller General issued pursuant to 16
paragraph (3); and 17
(B) replacing the legacy capability fighter 18
aircraft within each covered Air National Guard 19
fighter unit with an advanced capability fighter 20
aircraft, fifth generation fighter aircraft, or 21
next-generation air dominance fighter aircraft. 22
(c) F
EASIBILITYSTUDY ONADVANCEDCAPABILITY 23
F
IGHTERAIRCRAFT.— 24
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(1) STUDY.—The Secretary, in consultation 1
with the Director of the Air National Guard, shall 2
conduct a study to determine the need for procuring 3
advanced capability fighter aircraft for use by the 4
active and reserve components of the Air Force. 5
(2) E
LEMENTS.—The study under paragraph 6
(1) shall— 7
(A) take into account any plans of the Sec-8
retary to implement unmanned or autonomous 9
capabilities in any fighter aircraft of the active 10
or reserve components of the Air Force; 11
(B) calculate any cost savings in long-lead 12
time, supply chain acquisition, and labor attrib-13
uted to any sales of the Block 70/72 variant or 14
later variant of the F–16 fighter aircraft by the 15
military of a foreign country; 16
(C) identify which reserve and active fight-17
er units of the Air Force would be eligible for 18
recapitalization with advanced capability fighter 19
aircraft; 20
(D) identify how advanced capability fight-21
er aircraft would meet steady state and contin-22
gency force presentation and mission require-23
ments of combatant commanders; and 24
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(E) identify whether a multiyear contract 1
would be the best method for acquiring ad-2
vanced capability fighter aircraft. 3
(3) R
EPORT.—Not later than 180 days after 4
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 5
shall submit to the congressional defense committees 6
the findings of the study conducted pursuant to this 7
subsection. 8
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this Act: 9
(1) The term ‘‘advanced capability fighter air-10
craft’’ means a Block 70/72 variant or later variant 11
of the F–16 fighter aircraft, an F–15EX fighter air-12
craft, any future variant of such fighter aircraft, or 13
any other more advanced capability fighter aircraft 14
(other than a fifth generation fighter aircraft) iden-15
tified by the Secretary. 16
(2) The term ‘‘congressional defense commit-17
tees’’ has the meaning given such term in section 18
101(a)(16) of title 10, United States Code. 19
(3) The term ‘‘covered Air National Guard 20
fighter unit’’ means any fighter unit of the Air Na-21
tional Guard with respect to which the Secretary has 22
not commenced or completed the process of replac-23
ing the legacy capability fighter aircraft of such unit 24
with advanced capability fighter aircraft or fifth gen-25
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eration fighter aircraft as of the date of the enact-1
ment of this Act. 2
(4) The term ‘‘fifth generation’’ has the mean-3
ing given such term in section 154(d)(2) of the Na-4
tional Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 5
2025 (Public Law 118–159). 6
(5) The term ‘‘fighter aircraft’’ has the mean-7
ing given such term in section 9062(i)(2) of title 10, 8
United States Code. 9
(6) The term ‘‘legacy capability fighter air-10
craft’’— 11
(A) has the meaning given such term in 12
section 154(d)(4) of the National Defense Au-13
thorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 (Public 14
Law 118–159); and 15
(B) does not include the Block 70/72 vari-16
ant of the F–16 fighter aircraft. 17
Æ
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