U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS)
- U.S. Senator Roger Wicker touts Mississippi’s role in the nation’s defense.
This month, during a period of intense disagreement between Republicans and Democrats, something encouraging happened.
U.S. senators from both parties came together and passed our draft of Congress’ annual national security bill. Seventy-seven out of 100 lawmakers voted in favor of this important bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which sets policy and salaries for the U.S. armed forces.
Rebuild and Reform
I was gratified to see this bill clear the Senate in such an overwhelming, bipartisan fashion. I am the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the team of lawmakers who wrote this NDAA. In the drafting process, I had two main goals: to help rebuild the U.S. military and to reform the Pentagon’s archaic, inefficient business practices.
This NDAA makes progress on both counts. It boosts defense spending, increasing funding for the ships, aircraft, and innovative weapons systems that service members need. It also includes the most significant acquisition and budgeting reform in decades. The legislation takes an axe to the red tape that has kept the Pentagon from building equipment quickly and from adopting the latest technologies. These reforms will accelerate defense production and will make the most of America’s innovative national security startups.
Mississippi Continues Leading in Defense
To many Americans, “defense production” is an abstract concept. But Mississippians understand it on a personal level. Our skilled workers craft the best-in-class equipment used by service members stationed across the globe. The NDAA recognizes those contributions. It builds on the investments Congress made this summer in our significant reconciliation law. That legislation was best known for extending the 2017 tax cuts, but it also included significant national defense funding.
In that law, we facilitated the construction of amphibious warships, unmanned ocean vessels, solid rocket motors, and rotary wing engines—all of which are built in Mississippi. In the NDAA, our state’s manufacturers will find even more support.
The bill will help us develop sea-based launch platforms, which service members use to practice intercepting enemy missiles. Our legislation sends resources to the Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, allowing researchers to build a simulator to test military vehicles on different road environments.
This summer’s reconciliation law backed much of this work, and the NDAA continues and extends that investment. It also supports Mississippi’s cyber security training and artificial intelligence programs. The legislation taps into the state’s expertise in drones, a prominent feature of modern warfare. Researchers and defense officials in Mississippi have built new drone detection technology, and others are developing AI tools that help defend against drone attacks. This legislation boosts both programs.
Mississippians are pushing the limits of radar and sensing capabilities. Our manufacturers build systems that fighter pilots rely on to understand their surroundings and to direct their fire. Along the coast, researchers have created advanced detection tools for service members during missions in shallow or littoral water.
Columbus Air Force Base and Meridian’s Key Field will both receive infrastructure improvements. Those upgrades help them maintain readiness and peak operating conditions. The NDAA contributes to work at all our major research universities, which are collaborating with defense officials and industry leaders every day.
When the Senate passed this national security bill, we moved one step closer to the kind of strength that can keep the peace. This NDAA will provide for service members, support Mississippians in the defense industry, and—most important—help deter America’s enemies.
