than seven years. (2) Excepted service hiring authority Each position in the Joint Autonomy Office shall be a position in the excepted service, and the Secretary may appoint individuals to such positions in the same manner as provided under section 1599f of title 10, United States Code. (f) Data access and related authorities (1) Data access The Secretary of Defense shall ensure that the Joint Autonomy Office— (A) subject to the implementation of the security protocols described in paragraph (2), has unlimited access to existing datasets within service and joint autonomous system, artificial intelligence, and legacy platform and sensor programs regardless of classification level