S. 4223 — First Island Chain Deterrence Act

This section defines four terms for purposes of the Act: (1) appropriate committees of Congress as the Senate Committees on Foreign Relations and Armed Services and the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Armed Services; (2) First Island Chain as the chain of archipelagos extending from the Kuril Islands and Japan, through the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, and the Philippines, to Borneo; (3) major defense equipment sales as all foreign military sales that meet Defense Security Cooperation Agency thresholds for congressional notification under section 36 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2776); and (4) strong denial defense as the prevention of an adversary from taking aggressive action by demonstrating that success in such an action would be prohibitively difficult.

This section directs the Comptroller General of the United States to submit to the appropriate congressional committees, not later than 18 months after the date of enactment, a report on delays in U.S. weapons sales to Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines through the foreign military sales process and their effects on the Department of Defense's ability to build, posture, and sustain a strong denial defense in the First Island Chain (i.e., the strategic area encompassing Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines). The report must include (1) a description of national security benefits from such arms deliveries and the importance of interoperability across the Taiwan Strait; (2) the current status of approved but incomplete major defense equipment sales, plus delay metrics attributable to Department of Defense processes, U.S. defense industrial base production constraints, or DoD prioritization of deliveries to other allies (e.g., in the Middle East); (3) an assessment of delay impacts on denial defense capabilities, including interoperability; and (4) an evaluation of other arms sales or transfer authorities' effects on such capabilities. The report must be submitted in unclassified form, to the maximum extent practicable, with a classified annex. The Secretary of Defense must provide the Comptroller General timely access to necessary information under 31 U.S.C. 716 (i.e., the Comptroller General's statutory authority to obtain agency records).