crs_reports: R48860

Congressional Research Service reports with summaries, authors, and topic classifications.

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R48860 FY2026 Defense Budget: Funding for Selected Weapon Systems 2026-02-20T05:00:00Z 2026-02-24T14:52:47Z Active Reports Daniel M. Gettinger Air, Land, Sea, Space & Projection Forces, Defense Authorization, Defense Budgets & Appropriations The second Trump Administration’s Department of Defense (DOD) budget request for FY2026 included $848.3 billion in discretionary funding and $113.3 billion in mandatory funding (DOD is “using a secondary Department of War designation,” under Executive Order 14347, dated September 5, 2025). Of the discretionary funding portion, the Administration requested a combined total of $295.3 billion in procurement and research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) funding, including proposed amounts for various weapon systems of congressional interest. By way of background, in its FY2026 budget request, DOD included two types of funding: mandatory funding that DOD assumed Congress would provide in an FY2025 reconciliation law (later enacted as P.L. 119-21) and discretionary funding that DOD requested for Congress to authorize and appropriate for FY2026 as part of a base budget (i.e., recurring costs to staff, train, and equip the armed forces). For FY2026, to varying degrees, DOD proposed allocating both mandatory and discretionary funding for programs, projects, and activities associated with weapon systems procurement and RDT&E. DOD has described its FY2026 budget request as making “generational investments” in Administration priorities, including in air and missile defense, the Air Force’s F-47 next-generation fighter aircraft, and shipbuilding. Relative to amounts Congress authorized and appropriated for FY2025, DOD’s FY2026 request also proposed increasing funding for certain hypersonic weapons programs and space-based systems. At the same time, DOD’s FY2026 request proposed reducing funding for other weapon systems, such as certain ground systems, the Navy’s F/A-XX next-generation fighter, and the Air Force’s E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning aircraft—changes that could lead to program delays or cancellation. During consideration of proposals for a National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 (NDAA; later enacted as P.L. 119-60) and a Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2026 (later enacted as Division A of P.L. 119-75), Members of Congress proposed providing more funding, the same amount, or less funding than the President requested for selected weapon systems. The enacted versions of the bills authorized and appropriated more funding than DOD requested for the Virginia-class submarine, Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, and E-7A Wedgetail, and less funding than requested for the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft, among other changes. Appropriators diverged from the amounts requested and those authorized for several weapon systems, including by providing more funding than requested for the Medium Landing Ship, C-130J Hercules cargo aircraft, and the F/A-XX fighter, among others. Divergent views in the Administration and Congress over perceived threats, defense strategy and requirements, and program performance generated debates over FY2026 funding for weapon systems procurement and RDT&E. Disagreements accompanying Congress’s decision to use, for the first time, the reconciliation process to provide additional funding to DOD, and DOD’s estimation of how such funds should be allocated to programs, contributed to changes to funding for certain weapon systems. Authorizers and appropriators, for example, disagreed with the Navy’s plan to fund the procurement of additional Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) class destroyers and a second Virginia-class submarine using resources provided in the reconciliation process instead of the annual authorization and appropriation process. In the enacted NDAA and defense appropriations act, Congress authorized and appropriated more discretionary funding than requested for the destroyers and the Virginia-class submarine. https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/PDF/R48860/R48860.3.pdf https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/HTML/R48860.html

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