SkyFoundry Act of 2025

This legislation mandates the Secretary of Defense to establish the SkyFoundry Program , aimed at the rapid development, testing, and scalable manufacture of small unmanned aircraft systems, with potential expansion to other autonomous systems. Administered by the Secretary of the Army and integrated into the Defense Industrial Resilience Consortium, the program will leverage alternative acquisition mechanisms, such as "other transaction authority" and the "middle tier of acquisition pathway," to expedite its objectives. The program will feature two key components: a Government-owned innovation facility for research and development, and a Government-owned production facility. This production facility, to be located at an existing Army Depot meeting specific criteria, is designed to achieve an annual production capacity of 1,000,000 small unmanned aircraft systems. The bill also ensures the United States retains appropriate intellectual property rights and authorizes the use of Defense Production Act authorities to bolster the domestic industrial base, alongside allowing for the expedition or waiver of Department of Defense regulatory requirements to facilitate rapid program execution.