WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate just passed Congress’ annual defense bill, the Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The legislation includes numerous Mississippi priorities.

U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., serves as the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), affording him a unique position to advocate for Mississippi’s national defense capabilities. It is expected that Senator Wicker’s colleagues will elect him SASC chairman in early January 2025.

Senator Wicker released the following statement:

“The wins in this bill demonstrate clearly that Mississippi’s military bases and defense industry are important contributors to national security. American service members across the world are safer because of the national security work done by Mississippians: whether it be through ships built at our shipyards, weapons, equipment, and ammunition from our manufacturers, or research conducted at our universities,” Senator Wicker said.

When the NDAA bill text was released, Senator Wicker also said:

“However, the failure to include a topline increase is a tremendous loss for our national defense…I remain resolved to continue the national conversation I have started about our defense needs, and I will amplify this discussion should I become Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. We need to make a generational investment to deter the Axis of Aggressors. I will not cease work with my Congressional colleagues, the Trump administration, and others until we achieve it.”

Among many of Senator Wicker’s priorities, a few key elements of the bill could ensure Mississippi receives additional investments in artificial intelligence, unmanned weapons systems, special operations activities, naval fleet construction, advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, and national security research.

The legislation contains several of Senator Wicker’s top national defense priorities:

• Authorizes funding to support a 14.5 percent pay raise for junior enlisted servicemembers (E1-E4) and a 4.5 percent pay raise for all other military members.
• Increases the number of required Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) units nationwide; expands eligibility criteria for schools to host JROTC.
• Requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to adhere to the industry standard of investing four percent of a facility's plant replacement value into annual sustainment by 2030, which will drastically increase facility sustainment funding to shrink the $180 billion repair backlog.
• Prohibits DOD from paying for puberty-blockers and other drugs that could sterilize children for the purposes of treating gender dysphoria.
• Freezes hiring at DOD for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work for one year.
• Prohibits DOD personnel from promoting critical race theory (CRT), or training CRT.
• Defunds $50+ million for DOD DEI programming to put toward counter-narcotics.
• Authorizes the Trump administration with $300 million in security assistance funds to support Taiwan’s defense reform and civil resilience efforts.
• Permanently authorizes the Office of Strategic Capital to make loans to innovative defense companies and drastically improves DOD economic warfare coordination.
• Creates a counter unmanned aerial systems (CUAS) task force, CUAS exercises, and sets up reporting requirements to confront UAS military base overflight.
• Establishes a single senior Pentagon official for nuclear deterrence policies and programs.
• Authorizes $322 million for the nuclear sea-launched cruise missile and provides additional flexibility to expedite development of the weapon.
• Kills the Navy’s bad idea to force a $750 million landing ship on the Marine Corps, instead requiring a $250 million ship.
• Cuts F-35 funding and holds defense contractors accountable for F-35 delays, requiring a full-scale remediation plan for future development and deliveries.
• Authorizes $47.5 million for continued U.S.-Israel collaborative research on emerging technologies and adds $30 million for U.S.-Israel anti-tunneling program.
• Halts the retirement of the capable F-15E fleet, directly involved in defense of Israel.
• Maintains crucial advanced fighter capacity by keeping the F-15 and F-22 fleets whole.
• Procures a 3^rd Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and a 2^nd Virginia-class attack sub in FY25.
• Accelerates the delivery of Landing Ship Medium for the Marine Corps.
• Drastically improves Navy focus on unmanned surface and subsurface vessels.
• Stops plans to turn DOD into the “climate-change” enforcer, refocusing efforts on building tactical capabilities and countering China.

The legislation also included many provisions beneficial to Mississippi:

North Mississippi 

• $10,000,000 to enable proof-of-concept work for an autonomous AI data fusion C2 capability for uncrewed systems, which could be completed in Starkville.
• $7,000,000 to enable testing and evaluation of a maneuverable 155mm projectile with a range of 100-150km, which would see approximately half of requested funds spent on fabrication of rounds in Tupelo.
• $10,000,000 to sustain and upgrade the Lakota helicopters, which are manufactured in Columbus.
• $1,000,000 to kick start production of ROC-X loitering munitions by Stark Aerospace, which will be manufactured in Columbus.
• $1,000,000 to help develop methods for reducing platform noise in Unmanned Underwater Vehicles, which will be completed in Tupelo.
• $3,000,000 to integrate and assemble the Distributed Gain 300kw Laser Weapon System, which will support work in Tupelo.
• $1,000,000 to support enhanced sensing capabilities in shallow-water environments, which supports work in Tupelo.

Central Mississippi 

• $10,000,000 to procure 16 additional Type 1 All Terrain cranes in order to prevent a break in production, which supports 39 jobs in Louisville and creates 10 additional jobs.
• $2,000,000 to support the use of gasification technology to take agricultural byproducts and plastic waste and convert to electricity in mobile, distributable sites, which would provide opportunities and training to Jackson State University, Alcorn State University, and Tougaloo College students in conjunction with the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg.
• $15,000,000 to support a program that creates unclassified, high-resolution three-dimensional terrain data required by US Combatant Commands, which would support work in Ridgeland and Long Beach.
• $1,000,000 to support the extension and enhancement of the existing ERDC modeling and simulation physics-based environment to facilitate future uses of defense weapon systems.
• $2,500,000 to develop engineered repair materials for paved and unpaved roadways in different climates, which would be supported in Richland and researched in Vicksburg.
• $6,700,000 to accelerate the planning and design of a corrosion control hangar at Key Field in Meridian for the 186^th Air Refueling Wing.
• $1,000,000 to update the fuel hydrant system at Key Field in Meridian for the 186th Air Refueling Wing.
• $5,600,000 to support planning and design of a Maintenance Hangar at Key Field for the 186^th Air Refueling Wing.
• $1,900,000 to support the planning and design of a base supply warehouse at Key Field for the 186^th Air Refueling Wing.

Gulf Coast 

• $25,000,000 to complete construction of a new Air Traffic Control Tower at Keesler Air Force Base, which is used by the 403^rd Weather Reconnaissance Wing.
• $60,000,000 to provide economic adjustments to support the Navajo class towing, salvage, and rescue ships, many of which are built in Pascagoula.
• $10,000,000 for the development of low-cost, rapidly deployable maritime sensors with supportive report language, which will be spent in Gulfport. This funding could support a partnership between Mississippi’s defense industry and the University of Southern Mississippi.
• $10,000,000 to support new coating for submarine hulls, which would maintain four jobs and create four new jobs in Gulfport. If successful, full-scale production could lead to hundreds of jobs.
• $9,000,000 to allow for the purchase of additional autonomous dual surface and underwater vehicles for Navy experimentation and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, supporting work in Gulfport. The bill also included language to designate an appropriate program sponsor to support future acquisition of these vessels.
• $6,000,000 to establish an operational center providing real-time cyber operation security to small businesses, which would be located in Biloxi.
• $7,000,000 to address cost hike and workforce reduction concerns caused by the cuts in the procurement rate of CCA’s, which could support work in Gulfport.
• $8,000,000 to sustain the High Performance Computing Modernization Program’s efforts, personnel, and facilities, supporting defense applications across various scientific disciplines, enhancing weapons system development, which affects 21 employees in Mississippi.
• $2,000,000 for advanced composite materials for wet submarines, which supports ongoing work in Gulfport.