U.S. Defense Spending Rises by More Than 17 Percent

March 2026
By Xiaodon Liang and Libby Flatoff

U.S. discretionary spending on national defense, including atomic energy activities, will rise by more than 17 percent in fiscal year 2026 to $1.05 trillion after Congress passed appropriations acts funding most of the government.

That total, reached after a cycle of tumultuous and disorderly budget processes, includes $893 billion approved through normal appropriations, as well as money provided last summer by a budget reconciliation act, which included $152.3 billion for the Pentagon and $3.9 billion for Department of Energy nuclear weapons activities. (See ACT June, July/August 2025.)

In May, the Department of Defense indicated it would spend $119.3 billion of the multiyear reconciliation money in fiscal 2026. But on Feb. 23 the department reversed course and said it would spend all of its multiyear allocation by the end of fiscal 2026, contradicting prior plans.

The Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program—originally set to receive $4.3 billion in research and development and construction funding this year, according to the president’s budget request—now has an increased budget of $5.3 billion. Last fiscal year, the Trump administration reallocated $1.2 billion of the Sentinel’s enacted $3.2 billion budget to other defense programs.

The program continues to undergo a major restructuring following a 2024 review required by the cost control provisions of the Nunn-McCurdy Act. (See ACT, September 2024.) The Air Force announced Feb. 17 that it anticipates completing the restructuring effort and attaining a Milestone B decision by the end of 2026.

The service also said the Sentinel missile would reach initial operational capability in “the early 2030s.”

Although the Air Force now believes it will conduct a first flight test—from a pad, not a silo—of the Sentinel missile in 2027, the Government Accountability Office noted in a brief Feb. 18 report that its analysis of Pentagon information suggests a March 2028 date instead.

The B-21 bomber program will receive $10.1 billion this year, a significant increase from last year’s $5.3 billion enacted budget. Some $4.5 billion of that total will go toward expanding bomber production rates. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink announced Feb. 23 that lead contractor Northrop Grumman and the Pentagon had reached an agreement to increase production capacity by 25 percent.

Although President Donald Trump said Feb. 2 on a podcast that the United States had ordered 25 more bombers, the Air Force has not confirmed an increase in the total B-21 production order despite previous discussion. (See ACT, May 2025.)

The Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine program will be funded at $9.6 billion through regular appropriations, with an additional $1.4 billion of reconciliation monies allocated to associated industrial base investments, according to congressional funding tables. The program received $9.8 billion last year.

The Feb. 23 documents provided by the Pentagon describing how it plans to use the full $152.3 billion in reconciliation funds by the end of fiscal 2026 confirm that the Navy will attempt to spend $2 billion in one year on the nuclear-capable, sea-launched cruise missile, a figure drastically increased from $150 million last year.

The breakdown in the justification documents of spending on the new nuclear weapon do not add up to the $2 billion total, and the scope of work described suggests multiple years of effort.

Last fall, the Pentagon forwarded to Congress an initial tranche of planned reconciliation commitments totaling around $90 billion, shy of the $119.3 billion envisioned in the president’s budget request.

In that fall document, the sea-launched cruise missile would have received only $458 million in funding, which matches what the newly released reconciliation spending justification documents describe as funding for transitioning from “early program planning into system architecture maturation, risk reduction, and engineer development.”

The Missile Defense Agency’s hypersonic defense efforts, including development of the Glide Phase Interceptor, were funded by Congress through normal appropriations at $185 million, but reconciliation funds will provide another $2.2 billion in classified spending.

Congress has similarly provided $1.7 billion for the Space Force missile warning and tracking constellation in low-earth orbit, while the reconciliation documents suggest a further $7.2 billion for space-based sensors is “pending approval.”

The constellation received a rebuke from the Government Accountability Office in a Jan. 28 report that criticized the program as having “yet to demonstrate the development of timely, actionable, and accurate two-dimensional tracks on orbit and three-dimensional tracks on the ground needed to counter hypersonic and other evolving threats.”

Appropriators also modestly reduced base funding for several missile defense programs, citing budget execution problems and funding requests that were ahead of actual program need.

The reconciliation documents indicate that details on Pentagon plans for spending $5.6 billion on “space-based and boost phase interceptor capabilities” have been classified.

This year’s appropriations bills also convey congressional concern about several key nuclear policy issues not tackled in the National Defense Authorization Act, which was signed into law in December.

In the act funding the Pentagon, defense appropriators expressed concern that the Defense Department “lacks a clear plan to meet strategic [nuclear command, control, and communications] requirements after the current legacy Space-Based Infrared systems age out,” despite an enacted $1.4 billion budget for the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared satellite program intended for geosynchronous and polar orbits.

In a joint explanatory statement, appropriators noted that although they support efforts to create a proliferated missile warning system in low-earth orbit, this constellation is “not designed to meet the strategic indications and warning requirements.” Energy and water appropriators also called for the prompt release of a pit production study by the JASON advisory group within 60 days of the report’s completion.