Limitation on availability of funds for Test Resource Management Center containerized instrumentation programs pending report on a common architecture for unmanned maritime test instrumentation

(a) Limitation Of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or otherwise made available for fiscal year 2027 for containerized instrumentation programs of the Test Resource Management Center, not more than 75 percent may be obligated or expended until the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, in consultation with the Director of the Test Resource Management Center and the Secretaries of the military departments, submits to the congressional defense committees the report described in subsection (b). (b) Report on common architecture for unmanned maritime test instrumentation (1) In general The report described in this subsection is a report that details the feasibility, advisability, and cost-benefit analysis of establishing a common architecture for integrating unmanned systems to act as instrumentation platforms for telemetry, flight safety systems, and multi-modal data collection. (2) Contents The report described in paragraph (1) shall include the following: (A) A comparative evaluation of the total lifecycle costs, operational benefits, and limitations of alternative manned, containerized, and unmanned vessel instrumentation capabilities. Such evaluation shall include the following: (i) A direct comparison of the Blue Water Instrumentation (BWI) program at Point Mugu Sea Range with containerized approaches such as the Broad Ocean Area Data Collection System (BOADCS) and the Mobile Open-System Architecture Instrumentation Containers (MOSAIC) program. (ii) An analysis of scalability, adaptability, and agility, contrasting the unmanned systems model of Blue Water Instrumentation with the logistics and crewing demands of containerized systems. (iii) A cost-per-event and cost-per-stream analysis for each approach, accounting for platform, personnel, logistics, and sustainment costs. (B) An evaluation of whether distributed, unmanned platforms can meet or exceed the data collection requirements for the most stressing test scenarios, including hypersonic vehicle tracking, exoatmospheric intercepts, and terminal area data collection. (C) A time-phased investment and transition strategy for making an unmanned architecture the primary approach for future maritime test instrumentation investments. The strategy shall identify specific legacy or containerized programs to be divested or consolidated to fund this transition. (3) Form The report described in paragraph (1) shall be in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex. (c) Definition of containerized instrumentation program In this section, the term containerized instrumentation program means any program of the Test Resource Management Center that primarily relies on packaging test and evaluation instrumentation in roll-on and roll-off shipping containers for deployment on manned vessels, including— (1) the Broad Ocean Area Data Collection System (BOADCS), which includes the Maritime Networked Telemetry Asset (MaNTA) system; and (2) the Mobile Open-System Architecture Instrumentation Containers (MOSAIC) program.