Heritage Action FY27 NDAA Priorities

The Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act presents Congress with another opportunity to restore American military strength, rebuild industrial capacity, defend the homeland, and ensure the United States can deter and, if necessary, defeat the Chinese Communist Party.

The Trump Administration’s FY27 defense strategy appropriately prioritizes defending the homeland and deterring China while making major investments in aircraft, ships, precision-guided munitions, strategic deterrence, and the Golden Dome. Heritage has likewise emphasized that defense spending must be tied to warfighting requirements rather than legacy assumptions, with particular attention to the capacity and logistics required to sustain a protracted conflict in the Indo-Pacific.

The following resource identifies priority policies to keep, add, or remove as the House and Senate reconcile the FY27 NDAA.

PROVISIONS TO KEEP / ADD

1) Securing the INDOPACOM Theater & Deterring China

Heritage Action supports provisions that rebuild American combat power, increase the capacity of the Joint Force, replenish critical munitions, strengthen shipbuilding and contested logistics, restore airpower, accelerate counter-UAS capabilities, and modernize strategic deterrence. Heritage analysis makes clear that the United States must be able not merely to reach the Indo-Pacific fight but to sustain it over time.

Navy / Contested Logistics

• House Secs. 123–125 — DDG-51 destroyers, John Lewis-class oilers, and amphibious ships (Keep). Protect procurement authorities that expand naval capacity and stabilize the maritime industrial base.
• House Sec. 130 — Torpedo modernization and inventory sufficiency (Keep). Expand heavyweight torpedo inventories required for undersea warfare against a peer adversary.
• House Sec. 1026 — Distributed shipbuilding strategy (Keep). Expand domestic capacity while creating opportunities for trusted allied investment and production where appropriate.
• Block-buy logistics ships (Add). Support sustained procurement of oilers, ammunition-capable T-AKE vessels, and other logistics ships. Heritage’s FY27 budget analysis identifies the logistics fleet as a critical vulnerability in a Pacific conflict.
• Marine Corps aviation logistics ships (Add). Maintain the existing T-AVB capability while establishing a replacement program to support distributed aviation operations.

Munitions / Army

• House Sec. 321 / Senate Sec. 321 — Munitions inventories and stockpile strategy (Keep). Require munitions planning and reporting to be tied to actual warfighting requirements for a protracted conflict with China.
• House Sec. 329 — Expansion of 155mm artillery ammunition production (Keep). Continue expanding domestic production capacity and stockpiles.
• Next-generation artillery (Add). Require the Army to establish a clear modernization path for next-generation self-propelled artillery and long-range fires. Heritage specifically recommended this in its FY27 defense-budget analysis.
• House Sec. 1061 — Institutionalize UAS and counter-UAS training (Keep). Make drone and counter-drone proficiency a foundational warfighting skill.
• Kinetic C-UAS acceleration (Add). Accelerate procurement and testing of affordable kinetic interceptors rather than relying exclusively on immature directed-energy solutions.

Airpower

• House Secs. 161–162 — Multiyear procurement for F-15EX and F-35 aircraft (Keep). Preserve fighter capacity while providing a stable demand signal to the aerospace industrial base.
• No net loss of Air Force aircraft (Add). Aircraft divestitures should not exceed procurement unless the Secretary certifies that doing so will not degrade operational capacity. Heritage has repeatedly recommended ending the decline caused by divestitures outpacing procurement.
• Second B-21 production facility (Add). Increase bomber production capacity, strengthen industrial-base resilience, and accelerate the fielding of long-range strike capacity.
• Strategic Deterrence / Missile Defense
• Golden Dome and space-based missile defense (Keep). Preserve House and Senate authorities supporting the Golden Dome, space-based interceptors, and an integrated missile-defense architecture while avoiding procedural requirements that unnecessarily delay fielding.
• Senate Sec. 1536 — Integrated air and missile defense coverage for Guam (Keep). Guam is indispensable to Indo-Pacific operations and must be defended accordingly.
• SLCM-N (Keep Senate funding level). Preserve the Senate’s stronger support for the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile and continued modernization of the nuclear deterrent.
• Strategic nuclear capacity (Add). Heritage has recommended additional B-21 and Sentinel acceleration, W80 stopgap measures, and authorization to upload additional ICBM warheads in response to China’s nuclear breakout.

2) Protecting American Technology, Research & Supply Chains from the CCP

The United States should not finance China’s military and technological rise with American technology. Heritage and Heritage Action have made preserving America’s semiconductor and AI advantage a major China priority, including explicit support for three technology-security measures in the FY27 NDAA.

• Chip Security Act (Keep). Require effective verification mechanisms to prevent advanced American AI chips from being diverted to China.
• AI OVERWATCH Act (Keep). Strengthen congressional controls and safeguards governing exports of sensitive, advanced AI technology.
• MATCH Act (Keep). Improve allied coordination on export controls for advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
• Senate Secs. 880–881 — China-linked routers, modems, and televisions (Keep). Reduce PRC-linked technology exposure across military installations and networks.
• Senate Sec. 882 — Synthetic-biology information protection (Keep). Prevent sensitive defense biotechnology information from reaching foreign entities of concern.
• Senate Sec. 224 — Adversary-linked academic research restrictions (Keep). Protect defense-funded research from exploitation by institutions tied to foreign adversaries.
• Senate Sec. 1545 — Counter foreign espionage and IP theft targeting defense assets (Keep). Strengthen protection of military technology, installations, research, and the defense industrial base.
• House floor protections involving Confucius Institutes and adversary-linked technology (Keep). Preserve House-passed measures increasing scrutiny of DoW-funded institutions with Confucius Institute ties and reducing dependence on foreign-adversary technology.

3) Promoting Merit, Readiness & Military Family Freedom

Military personnel policy should be centered on warfighting effectiveness, merit, readiness, discipline, and the needs of military families. Heritage Action made several of these FY27 NDAA issues scorecard-level priorities during House consideration.

• House Sec. 514 — Merit and racial neutrality in military personnel decisions (Keep). Preserve merit-based personnel policy.
• House Sec. 1058 — Prohibition on funding certain sex and gender-ideology-related programs and activities (Keep). Maintain the military’s focus on warfighting and readiness.
• Boebert Amendment / H.Amdt. 254 — Codify Executive Order 14183 on military service standards (Add). Heritage Action supported the amendment to codify commonsense recognition of biological reality and issued a key vote; it narrowly failed in the House, 212–217.
• Mace Amendment / H.Amdt. 255 — TRICARE restrictions on sex-rejecting interventions (Keep). Promote readiness, not sex-rejecting interventions. Passed the House, 219–208.
• Mace Amendment / H.Amdt. 256 — Protect women’s sports in DoDEA schools (Keep). Protect women’s sports and respect biological reality. Passed the House, 221–203.
• McDowell Amendment / H.Amdt. 257 — Military-family school-choice pilot (Add). Heritage Action supported the amendment to establish an education-choice pilot program for military families as a key vote; it narrowly failed in the House, 214–216.
• Self Amendment / H.Amdt. 258 — Codify protections and responsibilities for military chaplains (Keep). Protect free exercise and religious freedom for chaplains and servicemembers. Passed the House, 221–210.

4) Protecting Warfighter Medical Readiness

Military medicine must be organized first around force readiness, delivering combat casualty care, and returning wounded servicemembers safely from the battlefield. Administrative efficiency should not come at the expense of operational medical capability.

• Senate Sec. 742 — Preserve dedicated Army aeromedical evacuation capability (Keep). Protect dedicated MEDEVAC personnel, doctrine, training, leadership, and medically configured aircraft. Heritage has publicly argued that dedicated MEDEVAC remains a combat multiplier and should be modernized rather than eliminated through modular force design.
• Senate Sec. 745 — Medical readiness requirements for the Armed Forces (Keep). Ensure military medical structure is driven by wartime readiness requirements.
• Senate Sec. 748 — Joint Forces Medical Capabilities Development and Standardization (Keep with clarification). Preserve Combatant Command input and Service Surgeon General authority over Service-specific operational medical capabilities.
• House Secs. 721–725 — DHA reforms (Add readiness safeguards). Administrative reforms should expressly preserve Service responsibility for operational medical readiness, combat medical manpower, graduate medical education, and wartime requirements.
• Aeromedical Evacuation Aircraft and Medical Mission Equipment budget display (Add). Require an annual FYDP display so Congress can independently track dedicated MEDEVAC aircraft and medical mission-equipment modernization rather than burying those requirements inside generic aviation modifications.

5) Strengthening Homeland & Border Security

The southern border and Western Hemisphere are national security concerns. The Department of War should retain the authority required to support domain awareness, counter cartels, secure military installations, and assist lawful homeland-defense missions. Heritage’s FY27 defense work specifically identifies securing the Western Hemisphere and countering cartel threats as defense priorities.

• Senate Sec. 1045 — UAS incursions over military installations, sensitive sites, and the southern border (Keep). Improve visibility into rapidly growing drone threats.
• Senate Sec. 1092 — Southern border domain-awareness plan (Keep). Treat air and ground domain awareness at the border as part of homeland defense.
• Senate Sec. 1267 — Joint Interagency Task Force–Counter Cartel (Keep). Strengthen the national-security response to cartel activity in the Western Hemisphere.
• House McDowell cartel assessment amendment (Keep). Preserve the House-passed requirement for DoW to assess cartel military capabilities and identify authorities and resources needed to disrupt them.

PROVISIONS TO REMOVE

The final NDAA should remain focused on American warfighting requirements, homeland defense, China deterrence, and rebuilding U.S. military capacity. Congress should avoid provisions that perpetuate open-ended legacy missions, constrain presidential force-posture flexibility, impede lawful border support, or weaken executive authority to manage the defense enterprise.

House (H.R. 8800)

• Sec. 1115 — Limitation on use of funds to limit collective bargaining (Remove). Do not restrict the Secretary of War’s ability to organize and operate defense activities, depots, and shipyards according to mission requirements.
• Sec. 1212 — Coalition reimbursements for legacy military operations (Remove or aggressively sunset). Avoid indefinite reimbursement authorities disconnected from current strategic priorities.
• Sec. 1215 — Counter-ISIS assistance authority (Remove or substantially narrow). Legacy counterterrorism authorities should not become permanent commitments without a current and specific U.S. national-security requirement.

Senate (S. 4784)

• Sec. 1005 — Prohibition on support to the Department of Homeland Security (Remove if it restricts lawful border and homeland-defense support). Preserve DoW authority for domain awareness, counter-UAS, logistics, engineering, and other legitimate homeland-security missions.
• Sec. 1033 — Restriction on movement of Army prepositioned stocks from Europe (Remove or amend). Preserve presidential and Secretary-level flexibility to shift forces and materiel toward INDOPACOM or homeland requirements as strategy changes.
• Sec. 1214 — Counter-ISIS assistance authority (Remove or substantially narrow). Prevent indefinite continuation of legacy assistance missions.
• Sec. 1263 — Foreign students participating in Senior ROTC (Remove or narrow). Any expanded foreign access to military education should have a clearly defined national-security purpose and rigorous screening.

Any floor-added Ukraine intelligence, depot-maintenance, or troop-level restrictions that constrain Administration strategy or U.S. force-posture flexibility (Remove). Heritage Action opposed the Ukraine Support Act earlier this year, arguing that Congress should not undermine the Administration’s negotiating strategy through separate legislative mandates.