National Defence Authorisation Act passed by USA

Highlights:

• The US Senate recently passed the 740.5 billion USD of National Defence Authorisation Act. 
• The act allocates funds for military ships, construction projects, aircrafts, nuclear weapons and other national security initiatives.

Features :

• Pacific Deterrence Initiative to counter China"
• The act has allocated 2.2 billion USD to the Pacific Deterrence Initiative. 
• The initiative aims to enhance the American deterrence and increase the capability and readiness of US forces in the Indo-Pacific region. 
• Also, it will deepen US cooperation with its allies and partners such as Australia, India, China and Japan.
• Space:
• The Space Force is to start research and development projects to promote competition in the National Security Space Launch Programme.
• Cyber Security and Artificial Intelligence:
• The act is full of Artificial Intelligence and Cyber security.
• The NDAA contains the AI Initiative Act, National AI Research Resource Task Force Act and the Cyber security legislations.
• The act holds many of the recommendations made by the Cyberspace Solarium Commission. 
• This includes the creation of National Cyber Director position in White House.
• The act also holds new standards for cybersecurity maturity model certification.

National Defence Authorisation Act, 2020 : A Fact File

• The National Defence Authorisation Act of 2020 brought India at par with the NATO allies of America and other countries like South Korea and Israel.
• National Defence Authorisation Act is one of the two bills used by the US Congress to oversee the defence budget of the USA (the other bill is Defence Appropriation Bill). 
• It specifies the annual budget and expenditure of the country’s defence department. 
• This is a yearly bill. This bill has been passed by the Congress for 60 years in a row. 
• This year’s bill includes mandatory sanctions on Turkey for its acquisition of Russian missile defence system, renaming of bases that currently honor Confederate leaders from pro-slavery states, pay raises for service members, etc.