The HALO Act of 2026 establishes comprehensive safeguards for military weapon systems that use artificial intelligence to identify or engage targets, distinguishing between fully autonomous systems (which can act without human intervention after activation) and semi-autonomous systems (which require human operators to select targets). The law requires that military commanders maintain ultimate authority over all use-of-force decisions, mandates transparent and auditable AI systems with clear human override capabilities, and imposes strict record-keeping and monitoring requirements to ensure compliance with U.S. and international law. The bill also establishes rigorous testing standards throughout a weapon system's lifecycle, including operational testing against adaptive adversaries and specific evaluation of AI algorithm robustness, overseen by the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation through a centralized incident tracking system. The law takes effect 180 days after enactment, after which the Secretary of Defense must review all existing AI-enabled weapons systems and certify their compliance to Congress, immediately shutting down any non-compliant systems and providing detailed remediation plans for fixing or retiring them.
Take Action
Your position
Add a comment
to comment on this bill.
Annotate the text
Highlight any passage on the Summary or Full Text tab to attach a note. Annotations appear on the Annotations tab.