Pilot program on integrated road and railroad logistics capabilities for United States Transportation Command

(a) Establishment Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense, acting through the Commander of the United States Transportation Command, shall establish a pilot program to assess the operational utility of integrated road and railroad logistics capabilities at the initial and final stages of the transportation process, to improve the resilience, throughput, and safety of surface distribution in support of joint force operations, including in austere and contested environments. (b) Activities The pilot program under subsection (a) shall, to the maximum extent practicable and consistent with applicable safety and security requirements, include the following activities: (1) The demonstration and evaluation of surface logistics platforms capable of— (A) operating on public roads and on standard-gauge rail infrastructure, including yards, spurs, sidings, and railheads; and (B) transitioning between such modes without requiring the construction of new fixed terminal infrastructure. (2) The demonstration and evaluation of capabilities to transport standardized cargo platforms, including loads compatible with international intermodal containers (commonly referred to as ISO containers) and other modular payloads, between public roads and rail infrastructure in a manner that reduces reliance on multiple specialized assets for handling cargo and reduces cargo dwell time at railheads and yards. (3) The assessment of plans for the operational deployment of such platforms, capabilities, and associated systems, for— (A) distribution to military installations and use with respect to depots; (B) port and strategic mobility support activities; and (C) distributed logistics in austere and contested environments where infrastructure is damaged, constrained, or unavailable. (4) The demonstration and evaluation of a software-enabled capability to coordinate transportation on public roads and rail infrastructure at the initial and final stages of the transportation process, including to coordinate the scheduling of yard and terminal availability, mission assignment, and exception management, and to generate auditable performance data on such activities. (5) The assessment of cybersecurity and data integrity measures for any networked command-and-control, dispatch, or audit logging function relating to such pilot program, including authentication, encryption in transit, access controls, and tamper-evident recordkeeping, consistent with applicable cybersecurity policies of the Department of Defense. (6) The evaluation of safety considerations (including with respect to human involvement in supervision activities, as appropriate) and compliance pathways for operations on or adjacent to rail infrastructure and in controlled environments, including geofenced areas. (c) Locations The Commander of the United States Transportation Command shall carry out the pilot program under subsection (a) at one or more locations selected by the Commander. Such locations may include the following: (1) A strategic distribution node, port, or other surface distribution hub supporting the Defense Transportation System. (2) A railhead located at a military installation, a depot, a location at which logistics readiness activities are conducted, or another facility of the Department of Defense with recurring surface distribution requirements. (d) Metrics and evaluation In carrying out the pilot program under subsection (a), the Commander of the United States Transportation Command shall establish metrics and, to the maximum extent practicable, collect and assess performance data for the activities conducted under such pilot program. Such data may include the following: (1) Cargo dwell time and throughput. (2) Labor hour requirements and safety incidents. (3) Operational availability and maintenance burden. (4) Energy use and fuel consumption. (5) Integration burden with existing logistics information systems. (6) Cybersecurity observations and data integrity outcomes. (e) Termination The pilot program under subsection (a) shall terminate on the date that is two years after the date on which the pilot program is established. (f) Report Not later than 180 days after the date of the termination of the pilot program under subsection (e), the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the congressional defense committees a report containing a description of the results of such pilot program, including the following: (1) A summary of the activities conducted under such pilot program and the locations selected pursuant to subsection (c). (2) An assessment of the performance of such activities against the metrics established pursuant to subsection (d). (3) An identification of any safety or regulatory constraint encountered in carrying out such activities, including as a result of railroad operating rules. (4) An assessment of cybersecurity and data integrity considerations. (5) A cost-informed assessment of the scalability of such pilot program and related sustainment considerations. (6) Recommendations regarding future experimentation relating to the capabilities demonstrated and evaluated under such pilot program or similar capabilities, the development of related requirements, and potential transition pathways for such capabilities.