(a) Limitation on retirement or divestment
None of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or otherwise made available for fiscal year 2027 for the Department of the Air Force may be obligated or expended to retire, divest, place in storage, transfer to nonoperational status, or prepare for retirement any MQ–9 Reaper aircraft.
(b) Certification requirement for future retirement or divestment
Beginning after September 30, 2027, the Secretary of the Air Force may not retire, divest, or transfer to nonoperational status any MQ–9 Reaper aircraft until the Secretary certifies in writing to the congressional defense committees that—
a replacement capability has achieved initial operational capability;
such replacement capability provides comparable or superior—
persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capability;
strike capability;
survivability in a dynamic and high-threat environment;
maritime surveillance capability;
communications relay capability; and
operational availability and sortie generation capacity;
the replacement capability is available in sufficient operational quantities to meet requirements of the combatant commands;
the retirement or divestment will not increase operational risk to ongoing contingency operations, homeland defense missions, maritime domain awareness missions, or crisis response operations;
the Secretary has conducted a force structure assessment evaluating the impact of such retirement on—
globally deployed operations;
distributed operations in the Indo-Pacific region;
operations in the United States Central Command area of responsibility;
support to special operations forces; and
support to allied and partner nation operations; and
the Secretary has submitted the assessments required under subsection (c).
(c) Combatant commander sufficiency assessment
Not later than 30 days prior to submitting a certification under subsection (b), the Secretary of the Air Force shall submit to the congressional defense committees an assessment from—
each of the commanders of the combatant commands regarding the operational sufficiency of the remaining remotely piloted aircraft force to execute approved operational plans and ongoing missions;
the Commander of United States Special Operations Command regarding the impact of such retirement on support to special operations missions;
the Commander of United States Indo-Pacific Command regarding the impact on distributed maritime surveillance and targeting operations in the Indo-Pacific theater; and
the Commander of United States Central Command regarding the impact on ongoing counterterrorism, force protection, and crisis response operations.
(d) Replacement capability defined
In this section, the term replacement capability means a platform, family of systems, or operational capability intended to replace the operational functions currently performed by the MQ–9 Reaper fleet, including—
intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance;
precision strike;
maritime domain awareness;
electronic warfare; and
communications relay.