10 U.S.C. § 2278: Notification of foreign…

Summary

The Commander of the U.S. Space Command must tell certain congressional committees whenever a foreign actor intentionally tries to disrupt, degrade, or destroy a U.S. critical national security space capability. The Commander must give an initial alert within 48 hours after determining there is reason to believe the attempt happened, and a written, detailed notification within 10 days after that determination. If the attacks are continuous or repeat, the Commander must report the first attempt as above and then send a combined monthly report by the tenth day of each month after the month when the first notice was given. The written notification must name and briefly describe the affected capability, describe the attempt (including the foreign actor, date and time, any outages, and mission impact), and include any other relevant information. "Appropriate congressional committees" means the congressional defense committees and, for intelligence-related matters, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. A "U.S. 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 applicable DOD rules.

Title 10, §2278

Armed Forces, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Notice Required.—

(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)Notification Description.—

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)Definitions.—

In this section: (1)

(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.

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”.

§2278 Notification of Foreign Interference of National Security Space