H.R. 5086 — SkyFoundry Act of 2025

This section establishes the SkyFoundry Program, to be carried out by the Secretary of Defense through the Secretary of the Army as part of the Defense Industrial Resilience Consortium, for the rapid development, testing, and scalable manufacture of small unmanned aircraft systems (with potential expansion to associated energetics and other autonomous systems). The program leverages other transaction authority under 10 U.S.C. §4022 and the middle tier acquisition pathway under 10 U.S.C. §3602; authorizes multiyear contracts and public-private partnerships for contractor-augmented support; ensures the United States retains government purpose rights in jointly developed intellectual property; directs use of Defense Production Act title III authorities to prioritize domestic production capacity; and allows expedited waivers of Department of Defense regulations. The program comprises (1) a government-owned innovation facility operated by U.S. Army Materiel Command in coordination with U.S. Army Futures Command as a research, development, and testing hub incorporating lessons from global conflicts; and (2) a government-owned production facility operated by U.S. Army Materiel Command capable of producing 1,000,000 small unmanned aircraft systems annually once established. The Secretary shall prioritize existing Army depot facilities at a minimum of two separate sites (one each for the innovation and production facilities), with authority to renovate, expand, or construct using available funds notwithstanding 10 U.S.C. chapter 169 (military construction); the production facility site must comprise 15,000 acres (including approximately 10,000 buildable acres and 8,000,000 square feet of facilities) and be located within 50 miles of four states.