US national security budget tops $1 trillion; prioritizes China, missiles, drones

The U.S. National Defense Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2026 is over a trillion dollars

First time in history it's ever been that high. The Pentagon hasn't released a full breakdown of

where exactly all that money is going, but based on what's publicly available, we have a pretty good

idea. All right, let's start with the nuts and bolts. Of the $1.01 trillion being requested for

U.S. National Defense, $961 billion will go straight to the Department of Defense

which breaks down into these buckets. $197 billion for the Army, $292 billion for the

Department of the Navy, which includes the Marines, $301 billion for the Air and Space

forces, and another $170 billion for defense-wide activities. However, only $848 billion of the

$961 billion request is through the discretionary budget. The other $113.3 billion would need to

come from a congressional reconciliation bill. All in, the request represents a 13% increase over

last year, but that doesn't mean the average service member will necessarily feel the impacts

from the increase. You know, my sense is that the services will actually feel it's a little bit

tighter because the way that really comes together is the services, I think, are looking at like an

8% kind of baseline reduction that's going to hit and the reconciliation plus that 8% that's

kind of come off is going to go towards administration priorities Mark Wetherington is a retired Air Force Lieutenant General and the former Deputy Commander of U Global Strike Command The 8 reduction he referring to is the previously announced mandate

from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth that all military branches would need to find ways to free up around 8% of their budgets

to go towards President Trump's national defense priorities. Think shipbuilding, expanding the defense industrial base so that the U.S. can build thousands of drones quickly, modernizing the nuclear triad, and of course, expanding the Space Force

I don't think that's a surprise to anybody. If I was to describe it, I would say space, cyberspace information are domains or aspects of warfare that are going to grow in relevance for the next hundred years

And so not that they're the most important, not that that's the only thing you have to do, but every year for the next century, those things will be more relevant on outcomes or fighting outcomes

Golden Dome, the name given to President Donald Trump's initiative to establish a nationwide missile defense system, will receive a $25 billion boost in funding, but only if both the discretionary budget and reconciliation bill are approved

Something that interesting is the Golden Dome down payment is part of the reconciliation bill but it is not part of the initial budget request So what is interesting from an ytical perspective is there has been much talk about the significance of the Golden Dome project how it very important for the United States to proceed with this But it curious why they would include that as the reconciliation project and not within the defense budget itself Mark Timnitsky is a non fellow with the Atlantic Council He also a freelance journalist with 10 years of experience

covering global national defense issues. He says a trillion dollar defense budget was always going to make headlines

but there is more nuance surrounding the issue given the current political climate

While the defense budget is larger than it was in the last fiscal year, there are still federal employees and government contractors, specifically for the Department of

Defense, who are having their positions terminated or eliminated because of DOGE efforts. So it's

very interesting to see how will these breakdowns within the defense budget impact other, not only

just service men and women, but federal employees and contractors working in these realms

employees and contractors who could be working on programs like the modernization of the U.S

nuclear triad, which is slated to see about $60 billion in fiscal year 2026

Included in that is just over $10 billion to speed up deliveries on the B-21 Raider program

the sixth generation stealth bomber set to replace the B-2 Spirit. The Columbia-class submarine program will rake in $11 billion next year, and Sentinel

America's replacement for the Minuteman III ICBM will see about $4 billion

Minuteman III is a great example, right? Fielded in 1980, was supposed to be 10-year service life

And now we're 40 years into that 10-year service life and still capable, still ready

But it's increasingly difficult to sustain it and to keep it ready to do the things it needs to do

And so we kicked all those things down to the same point in time If we would have been smarter about it we would have modernized the missile the bomber and the submarine legs at different points in time To make sure the U doesn kick drones down the road for the first time ever the Department of Defense created a separate budget line for autonomy and autonomous systems to the tune of billion

Commercial technology has reached such a form of maturity that our enemies and our adversaries have access to technologies that once only aerospace really surrounded

Ryan Gurey is the president and CEO of Performance Droneworks. PDW's C-100 is part of the Army's small uncrewed aircraft systems program of record

And Gurey says they're ready to compete for more. We're growing faster than we really can handle, and I think that's indicative of what the Army's intent is

They're looking for fast iteration. They're looking for very inexpensive, scalable systems, systems that are designed for manufacturing

The ability to integrate new and emerging technologies quickly, or at the speed of relevancy, as generals like to say, is vital in today's defensive landscape

because those days of the U.S. taking decades to develop new weapons are long gone

This is a new era where inexpensive, one-time-use robotics will really lead the way

and I think that the U.S. is doing a great job understanding that and moving with incredible speed to adapt

The DOD's 2026 budget request and the reconciliation bill both still need to pass Congress

The fiscal year ends on September 30th. For more unbiased, straight-fact reporting like this, download the Straight Arrow News app today