In the waning days of 2025, the White House released a new National Security Strategy prioritizing the Western Hemisphere and stirring questions about the US commitment to Europe and the Indo-Pacific. What didn’t drop as expected is a coinciding National Defense Strategy that outlines what changes are afoot for the military presence at home and around the globe.
Release of the NDS in 2026 could bring a larger presence of US troops based throughout the Americas, with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine surmising in early December that the NSS could mean moving more “combat power” into the region.
“After years of neglect, the United States will restore US military dominance in the Western Hemisphere,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at the same event in Simi Valley, Calif. “We will use it to protect our homeland and access to key terrain throughout the region. We will also deny adversaries ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities in our hemisphere.”
[This article is one of many in a series in which Breaking Defense reporters look back on the most significant (and entertaining) news stories of 2025 and look forward to what 2026 may hold.]
That pivot could have second- and third-order efforts on NATO and European partners and allies. The strategy could also mean changes to the National Guard’s ongoing presence inside US cities and the US military strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific the Trump administration claims are smuggling drugs.
What isn’t clear, though, is if a Republican-led Congress will spend 2026 opposing Pentagon plans, like a possible mass reduction of US troops inside Europe, a move lawmakers pushed back on in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Another possible point of contention between members of Congress and the administration during a midterm election cycle? US support for Ukraine.
Trump officials caught US lawmakers and European leaders by surprise in late November when they delivered a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine attributed to Trump that opponents said was straight out of the Russian playbook and would hamstring NATO.
US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle echoed concerns about that US peace plan, including Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who said at the time Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to play Trump “for a fool.”
Various discussions of what to do next have been ongoing between different stakeholders — the US, NATO, Ukraine and Russia — in different meetings. What is yet to be seen is if Washington will halt support for Ukraine at some point next year or if it might stop the flow of weapons ultimately bound for Kyiv.
Meanwhile, 2026 could start to shed some light on any acquisition reform overhaul momentum and pressure points. While the Pentagon spent the bulk of 2025 slowly rolling out changes like adoption of the Software Acquisition Pathway (SWP), Army Transformation Initiative and drone dominance plan, it takes time for those solidify and show results.
“This is definitely going to be a journey of … working across all levels of the department to ensure that we get the right ideas injected, and we provide kind of guidance, training and support to the workforce to ensure they understand how to move forward,” Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey told reporters in December.
The upcoming 12 months could bring some clarity to administration plans for designing and fielding a multi-billion dollar Golden Dome — a sprawling, multilayered homeland air defense system.
So far, officials like Golden Dome’s Director for Major Weapons Program Gen. Michael Guetlein have remained tight-lipped about the architecture and implementation plan. But at the Reagan National Defense Forum in December, the four-star general said the department is just kicking off the public discussion and more details should emerge in 2026.