S. 5211: To require the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to submit a strategy for cyber cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, and for other purposes.

This bill would require the Department of Defense to create and start carrying out a plan for stronger cyber cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region within 180 days of enactment. The plan would be developed by the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, working with U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. Cyber Command, and would be sent to the congressional defense committees.

What the strategy would cover

The required strategy would focus on how the U.S. military can work more closely with allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific on cyber issues through 2040. It would need to address:

• Defensive cyber operations and offensive cyber operations
• Secure information sharing
• Cyber training, exercises, and workforce development
• Protection of critical infrastructure, communications networks, and defense industrial base networks
• Joint planning and operational integration
• Command-and-control structures for joint cyber activities

The bill also requires the strategy to identify:

• Current cyber cooperation efforts, agreements, and capability gaps between the U.S. and Indo-Pacific partners
• The cybersecurity capacity and resilience of each partner, including how their cyber responsibilities are organized and what standards they use
• Differences between U.S. cyber standards and partner standards, and how those differences affect interoperability and collaboration
• What resources, authorities, or policy changes may be needed to fill gaps
• Opportunities to expand cyber exercises, workforce exchanges, capacity-building, and broader cooperation

Funding and oversight requirements

Within 180 days, the same officials would also have to provide Congress with:

• A funding and resourcing plan for implementing the strategy during the current defense planning cycle
• A list of any resource gaps that could slow or prevent implementation
• A briefing on the strategy

By March 15, 2028, they would need to submit another report describing:

• What actions have been taken to carry out the strategy
• What operational or capability gaps remain
• What barriers have been encountered
• Whether additional authorities or resources are still needed

The strategy, briefing, and reports would be submitted in unclassified form, though they could include a classified annex.

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