Today, AUVSI urged Congressional leadership to avoid funding the federal government via a full-year continuing resolution (CR) and explained how it would negatively impact the uncrewed vehicle industrial base and U.S. global competitiveness.

As Michael Robbins, Chief Advocacy Officer, wrote, it is critical in this era of strategic global competition for the U.S. to invest where we can gain an edge -- and our position as a global leader in tech and innovation can provide that edge. However, a yearlong CT would hinder our competitiveness and weaken the domestic industrial base.

Read the full letter here, with text pasted below:
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Dear Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Schumer, Minority Leader McConnell, and Minority Leader McCarthy:

On behalf of AUVSI’s members in the defense industry, I write to urge you to finalize and pass a government funding bill for FY 2023 before the 117th Congress adjourns. Operations under a full-year continuing resolution would make our military less agile and curtail our ability to prepare for current security challenges. It would also hinder the continued integration of uncrewed systems into the U.S. military, ultimately harming our preparedness for strategic competition and realization of the unparalleled value uncrewed systems will provide in achieving the vision presented in the National Defense Strategy.

In this new era of strategic global competition, it is even more important for the U.S. to invest where we can gain a military advantage. The U.S.’s position as a global leader in tech and innovation can provide that edge; however, a yearlong CR would hinder our competitiveness and weaken the domestic industrial base.

As the Pentagon moves resources and dollars to address the new era of strategic competition, uncrewed systems — in the air, in space, in the sea and on land — will be the tip of the sword for our sailors, Marines, soldiers and airmen against rising geopolitical threats. Nowhere has this been more visible in 2022 than in Ukraine’s defense against Russian aggression. The Navy’s Task Force 59 has also successfully demonstrated the extent to which DOD leaders realize that many uncrewed technologies are mature and ripe for defense applications.

With fiscal 2023 well underway, I urge Congressional leaders to consider that failure to pass funding bills would create a domino effect that will harm U.S. national security for years to come by damaging the growing domestic industrial base in uncrewed and autonomous systems.

The now-normalized cycles of CR stopgap measures result in real-dollar budget reductions and program delays that threaten the research, development, procurement, and adoption of critical tools. At a House Appropriations Committee on this same issue during FY 2022, Adm. Mike Gilday stated: “Every day matters in this critical decade.”

Mass production capability is critical to support the high-end fight by getting agile systems to the warfighter at-scale. Companies which are working to advance the front lines of innovation while providing the best value to the warfighter already face a “procurement trough” caused by delays and gaps in new programs. A full-year CR would set off an irreversible effect that would deepen this trough for years to come. Smaller and midsized companies feel the impacts of these delays most, and continued delays will force them to move their investments away from U.S. defense contracting to other, more predictable markets.

Congressional leaders must understand that the importance of full funding for the research, development, test and evaluation as well as the procurement of uncrewed systems at this moment cannot be overstated. A full-year CR will prevent cuts that significant losses of time and capital that the uncrewed and autonomous systems industry has spent in preparing systems for field action. The defense industrial base has made investments in the technology, supply base, workforce, supply chain and infrastructure based on the DoD’s vision for the future.

Until Congress puts American tech leadership before political concerns, the U.S. will fall behind in the development, fielding and adoption of modern technology that support a full range of missions. I urge you to work to build consensus to make DOD’s strategic visions a reality and ensure that advancements being made in the commercial sector translate to success at the DOD, in the hands of our warfighters, and for the U.S.’s long-term global leadership.
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Sincerely,

Michael Robbins
Chief Advocacy Officer
The Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI)