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Senior Department of Defense officials and military leaders released on Thursday DOD’s $961.6 billion fiscal year 2026 proposed budget, which includes $848.3 billion in discretionary funding and $113.3 billion in mandatory funding through congressional reconciliation, DOD News reported.
“This historic defense budget prioritizes strengthening homeland security, deterring Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific [region], revitalizing the defense industrial base and maintaining our commitment to being good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” a senior defense official told reporters during a media briefing at the Pentagon.
The official said the defense budget proposal would allocate $301.1 billion for the U.S. Air Force; $292.2 billion for the U.S. Navy; $197.4 billion for the U.S. Army; and $170.9 billion defensewide. The proposed Air Force budget includes $40 billion for the U.S. Space Force.
Mandatory Reconciliation Funding to Back Missile Defense, Shipbuilding
The DOD official said the mandatory budget, through congressional reconciliation, would fund shipbuilding, munitions production, missile defense and other Trump administration priorities.
F-35 Procurement
The proposed budget would reduce the procurement of the Lockheed Martin-built F-35 Lightning II stealth strike fighter aircraft to 47, down from 74 units.
A military official said the requested budget includes approximately $1 billion to invest in spare parts to address readiness and sustainment challenges facing the F-35 program and increased funding to modernize the fighter jet’s capabilities.
Proposed Funding for Golden Dome, Nuclear Triad
The department’s budget request includes $25 billion for the proposed Golden Dome for America missile defense initiative; $60 billion for the nuclear triad and nuclear modernization efforts; and $6.5 billion for conventional and non-hypersonic munitions and $3.9 billion for hypersonic weapons.
DOD also proposed to allocate $15.1 billion in funding for cybersecurity efforts to support joint, all-domain operations; $3.1 billion for continued production of the F-15EX Eagle II fighter jet; $3.5 billion for the Air Force’s planned F-47 Next Generation Air Dominance fighter jet platform; and $2.5 billion for the expansion of missile and munitions production.
The proposed budget would provide $1.2 billion for the DOD Office of Strategic Capital’s loan program in support of national security projects.