David's Sling Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016

Summary: David's Sling Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 This bill authorizes the Secretary of Defense carry out activities relating to the research, development, test, and evaluation and procurement of the David's Sling weapons program. It is the sense of Congress that:   the United States and Israel should enter into a production agreement that specifies the terms of coproduction, program schedule, and an itemization of costs for the David's Sling weapons program production;  such production agreement should strive for optimal coproduction of the David's Sling components; and  reaching such a bilateral production agreement, which includes funds disbursement policy, should be a priority.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``David's Sling Authorization Act for 
Fiscal Year 2016''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Israel is threatened by missiles and rockets from 
        adversaries in the region.
            (2) Over the past several years, with the assistance of the 
        governments of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Syria, 
        Hezbollah and Hamas have increased their stockpile of rockets 
        and missiles, which are ready to be fired at Israel. The 
        Lebanon conflict in 2006 proved that Large Caliber Artillery 
        Rockets (LCARs) and Short Range Ballistic Missiles (SRBMs) have 
        become an immediate mortal threat to the Israeli civilian 
        population and are in the possession of Hezbollah and Syria.
            (3) In 2014, Hezbollah took possession of advanced guided-
        missile systems from Syria, representing a major upgrade from 
        the tens of thousands unguided rockets in Hezbollah's 
        possession.
            (4) Hamas militants recently acquired long-range M-302 
        rockets and fired them deeper into Israel than they ever had 
        before.
            (5) In 2008, the United States and Israel signed a project 
        agreement to co-develop the David's Sling system.
            (6) The David's Sling system will provide Israel an 
        effective and affordable defense against the threat of LCAR, 
        Tactical Ballistic Missiles (TBM) and against the emerging 
        Cruise Missile and similar representative threats, currently 
        proliferating in the region.
            (7) Israeli Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) multi-tier 
        architecture is comprised of the Upper Tier (Arrow Weapon 
        System with Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 interceptors) and Lower Tier 
        (David's Sling and Iron Dome systems). Arrow 2 and Iron Dome 
        are operational, while David's Sling is expected to reach its 
        initial operational capability shortly, followed by Arrow 3 in 
        near future.
            (8) Each system is designed to optimally encounter its own 
        range of threats, with a limited planned overlap between them. 
        David's Sling is designed to provide a regionally versatile 
        defense in a range between Iron Dome and Arrow 2 systems.
            (9) The missile and rocket threat to Israel is immediate. 
        Rapid development and deployment of the David's Sling system is 
        crucial to provide an enhanced defense to the State of Israel 
        and its people.
            (10) The fiscal year 2016 requirement for maintaining the 
        cost and schedule for the Arrow II, Arrow III, David's Sling, 
        and Iron Dome programs is $475,200,000 to support research, 
        testing, development, and procurement of these systems.
            (11) Of the $475,200,000, $136,900,000 is required in 
        fiscal year 2016 for completion of research and development and 
        $150,000,000 is required for the procurement of David's Sling 
        system components.
            (12) The United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation 
        Act of 2012 (Public Law 112-150) reaffirmed the commitment of 
        the United States to the security of Israel as a Jewish State 
        and to assist in the defense of Israel and to protect United 
        States interests.
            (13) The United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 
        2014 (Public Law 113-296) designated Israel as a Major 
        Strategic Partner of the United States.

SEC. 3. DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION OF DAVID'S SLING WEAPONS PROGRAM.

    (a) Authority.--The Secretary of Defense may carry out activities 
relating to the research, development, test, and evaluation and 
procurement of the David's Sling weapons program.
    (b) Authorization of Appropriations.--In addition to amounts 
otherwise authorized to be appropriated for the Department of Defense 
for fiscal year 2016, to carry out this section there is authorized to 
be appropriated for fiscal year 2016--
            (1) for procurement, Defense-wide, $150,000,000; and
            (2) for research, development, test, and evaluation, 
        Defense-wide, $136,900,000.
    (c) Sense of Congress on Coproduction.--It is the Sense of Congress 
that--
            (1) the United States and the Government of Israel should 
        enter into a production agreement that specifies the terms of 
        coproduction, program schedule, and an itemization of costs 
        with respect to the David's Sling weapons program production 
        activities;
            (2) such production agreement should strive for 
        coproduction of the David's Sling components to the most 
        optimal level and schedule; and
            (3) reaching such a bilateral production agreement, to 
        include funds disbursement policy, should be a priority, as has 
        been done in other missile defense programs.