Title 10Armed ForcesRelease 119-73

§2278 Notification of foreign interference of national security space

Title 10 › Subtitle Subtitle A— - General Military Law › Part PART IV— - SERVICE, SUPPLY, AND PROPERTY › Chapter CHAPTER 135— - SPACE PROGRAMS › § 2278

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Commander of U.S. Space Command must tell the right congressional committees when a foreign actor purposely tries to disrupt, degrade, or destroy a U.S. critical national security space capability. The Commander must give an initial notice within 48 hours after finding reason to believe the attempt happened and send a written, detailed notification within 10 days. If the attempts are ongoing or repeat, the first attempt is reported as above, then the Commander must send a single monthly consolidated report no later than the 10th day of each month after the month of the first notice. The written notification must name and briefly describe the affected capability, identify the foreign actor, give the date and time, note any outages and mission impacts, and add any other relevant facts. "Appropriate congressional committees" means the congressional defense committees and, for intelligence-related cases, the House and Senate intelligence committees. "United States critical national security space capability" means a capability on the Commander's critical asset list under DoD Directive 3020.40, DoD Instruction 3020.45, Joint Publication 3-01, or other DoD rules.

Full Legal Text

Title 10, §2278

Armed Forces — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)(1)Except as provided by paragraph (2), the Commander of the United States Space Command shall, with respect to each intentional attempt by a foreign actor to disrupt, degrade, or destroy a United States critical national security space capability, provide to the appropriate congressional committees—
(A)not later than 48 hours after the Commander determines that there is reason to believe such attempt occurred, notice of such attempt; and
(B)not later than 10 days after the date on which the Commander determines that there is reason to believe such attempt occurred, a notification described in subsection (b) with respect to such attempt.
(2)With respect to intentional attempts by a foreign actor to disrupt, degrade, or destroy a United States critical national security space capability that are continuous or repetitive in nature, the Commander shall—
(A)provide the notice and notification regarding the first attempt by such foreign actor in accordance with paragraph (1); and
(B)during the period in which such foreign actor continues or repeats such attempts, provide to the appropriate congressional committees a consolidated monthly notice and notification of such attempts by not later than the tenth day of each month following the month in which the first notice under paragraph (1) was provided.
(b)A notification described in this subsection is a written notification that includes—
(1)the name and a brief description of the national security space capability that was impacted by an attempt by a foreign actor to disrupt, degrade, or destroy a United States national security space capability;
(2)a description of such attempt, including the foreign actor, the date and time of such attempt, and any related capability outage and the mission impact of such outage; and
(3)any other information the Commander considers relevant.
(c)In this section:
(1)The term “appropriate congressional committees” means the following:
(A)The congressional defense committees.
(B)With respect to a notice or notification relating to an attempt by a foreign actor to disrupt, degrade, or destroy a capability that is intelligence-related, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives and the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate.
(2)The term “United States critical national security space capability” means a national security space capability of the United States provided by an asset on the critical asset list established by the Commander of the United States Space Command pursuant to Department of Defense Directive 3020.40, Department of Defense Instruction 3020.45, Joint Publication 3-01 of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or such other relevant requirements of the Department of Defense.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Prior Provisions

A prior section 2278, act Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, 70A Stat. 127, related to purchases of sample aircraft, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 103–160, div. A, title VIII, § 821(a)(1), Nov. 30, 1993, 107 Stat. 1704.

Amendments

2024—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 118–159, § 1604(1), designated introductory provisions as par. (1), substituted “Except as provided by paragraph (2), the Commander of the United States Space Command” for “The Commander of the United States Space Command”, inserted “critical” before “national security space capability”, redesignated former pars. (1) and (2) as subpars. (A) and (B), respectively, and added par. (2). Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 118–159, § 1604(2), added subsec. (c) and struck out former subsec. (c). Prior to amendment, text read as follows: “In this section, the term ‘appropriate congressional committees’ means— “(1) the congressional defense committees; and “(2) with respect to a notice or notification related to an attempt by a foreign actor to disrupt, degrade, or destroy a United States national security space capability that is intelligence-related, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives and the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate.” 2021—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 116–283 substituted “Space Command” for “Strategic Command”.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

10 U.S.C. § 2278

Title 10Armed Forces

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73