Perhaps the most notable change to existing operational authorities is an expansion of reporting requirements related to “sensitive military operations.” Section 1031 of the NDAA amends existing statutory provisions that obligate the Defense Department to report “sensitive military operations” to congressional committees by redefining that term to encompass any lethal or capture operations targeting specific individuals—whether conducted by U.S. armed forces or by foreign armed forces in coordination with U.S. armed forces—as well as operations conducted by U.S. armed forces in self-defense or in defense of foreign partners, except where such operations occur in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria. In addition, within 30 days of enactment, it requires that the secretary of defense provide Congress with a list of all the instances that would have qualified for such reporting under this new definition dating to 2013, when the reporting requirement was first enacted, effectively rendering this amendment retroactive.
Separately, Section 1031 also installs new reporting requirements for military action taken in defense of foreign partner forces. Such “collective self-defense” has occurred with non-state actors in Somalia and Syria in recent years and has been criticized for inadequate reporting. The NDAA addresses this by requiring that the secretary of defense provide a report that identifies all foreign partner forces that qualify for collective self-defense within 30 days of enactment and requiring that the secretary inform Congress within 48 hours whenever he determines that additional foreign partner forces are eligible. Once again, these requirements do not apply to partner forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.