10 U.S.C. § 2654 — Aircraft safety: requirements for certain highly trafficked domestic airspace

(a) Operating limit. Despite section 1046 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, a military-department Secretary may not authorize a Department of Defense manned rotary-wing aircraft to conduct a training mission in “covered airspace” unless the aircraft actively warns nearby commercial aircraft of its proximity in a way compatible with those aircraft’s traffic alert and collision avoidance system.

(b) Waiver. With the Secretary of Transportation’s concurrence, the military-department Secretary may waive the limit if the Secretary determines that the waiver serves United States national-security interests and that a commercial-aviation compatibility risk assessment was conducted to reduce the risk of the operation. If the waiver lasts more than 30 days, the Secretary must notify the appropriate congressional committees and include that assessment.

(c) Delegation. The waiver authority may not be delegated to an official below general or flag-officer^* rank^*.

(d) Definitions. (1) “Appropriate congressional committees” means the House Armed Services and Transportation and Infrastructure Committees and the Senate Armed Services and Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committees. (2) “Covered airspace” means the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area Special Flight Rules Area as defined in 14 C.F.R. § 93.335, or a successor regulation.