H.R. 7540 — United States-Israel FUTURES Act of 2026

This section expresses the sense of Congress that the United States and Israel share democratic values, strategic interests, and technological ties; that Israel is a strategic ally, defense technology leader, and close partner under a 2016 memorandum of understanding on military assistance and missile defense; and that the countries should expand joint research, development, and integration of defense technologies—such as missile defense, directed energy, counter-drone, and anti-tunneling systems—to maintain Israel's qualitative military edge and U.S. technological supremacy.

This section establishes the United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative, to be led by the Secretary of Defense with the concurrence of Israel's Minister of Defense, to expand and accelerate bilateral defense technology research, development, testing, evaluation, integration, and industrial cooperation. The initiative requires (1) identifying jointly developed or Israeli-origin technologies for integration into U.S. systems; (2) conducting collaborative research with government, private sector, and academic institutions while protecting sensitive information; (3) facilitating technology transitions to procurement; (4) establishing frameworks for joint ventures, licensing, and U.S.-based co-production with Israeli industry; (5) coordinating with specified DoD components (e.g., Defense Innovation Unit, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency); and (6) promoting joint training and information-sharing. It covers domains including counter-unmanned systems; anti-tunneling; missile and air defense (including Golden Dome for America); artificial intelligence, quantum, machine learning, and autonomous systems; directed energy and advanced sensing; cyber defense and electronic warfare; biotechnology and medical defense; network integration and contested logistics; defense industrial base cooperation; and other emerging technologies. The Secretary of Defense must coordinate initiative activities with the Secretaries of State and Commerce and other relevant federal agency heads to ensure consistency with existing laws.

This section directs the Secretary of Defense to provide the congressional defense committees (i.e., the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations and Armed Services) with (1) an interim briefing or written update not later than 180 days after enactment on steps to establish the initiative, coordination with Israeli counterparts, initial technology areas, designated Department of Defense components, and early transition or prototyping activities; and (2) annual reports beginning one year after enactment describing program activities, progress on shared security interests, collaboration with other U.S.-Israel programs, transitioned technologies, industry partnerships, and future priorities and resource needs. The annual reports must be submitted in unclassified form but may include a classified annex. This section further requires the Secretary to post periodic unclassified updates on a public Department of Defense website describing initiative activities and their contribution to U.S. technological and military supremacy, without disclosing classified or sensitive information.