Reconciliation revealed: How the Pentagon plans to spend all $152 billion in FY26

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department intends to spend all $152 billion of the funding allocated though last year’s reconciliation bill in fiscal 2026, a departure from previous plans to spend $113 billion of that sum, the department said in an unclassified spending plan delivered to Congress.

The Pentagon also will spend an additional $1 billion through the Defense Production Act on key areas meant to bolster the resiliency of the defense industrial base through additional investments in solid rocket motors, advanced manufacturing for munitions and energetics and other priorities.

The department provided few details about why it’s chosen to expend all $152 billion in reconciliation funding throughout this fiscal year, rather than spreading it over the five years allocated for its use.

“While the mandatory funds are available for obligation until September 30, 2029, and in some cases the detailed allocation plans provided below reference contact awards dates in future years, the DoW [Department of War] is working to accelerate execution into FY 2026 if that can be done without sacrificing effectiveness,” the Defense Department said in the plan, which was obtained by Breaking Defense, using its preferred name for the department. Inside Defense was the first outlet to report on the spend plan.

While the reconciliation legislation approved by Congress in 2025 dictates broad contours for how money is to be obligated, not all of the defense spending in the bill was tied to specific weapons programs — giving the Pentagon latitude for how it executed the funding.

The leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees sent additional spending guidance to the Defense Department in July, with the department sending over the first tranche of its reconciliation implementation plan this past fall, sources told Breaking Defense. That plan, which covered about $90 billion, was classified.

While key details on programs such as Golden Dome and the sixth-generation fighter F-47 remain classified, the Pentagon’s plan sheds light on where money is headed for areas like munitions, key nuclear modernization efforts and the defense industrial base.

Munitions And Supply Chain

About $25 billion of defense reconciliation spending goes toward munitions procurement and development of the supply chain.

That huge sum results in substantial plus-ups to key programs like the Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASM), which gets about $400 million to boost procurement by about 90 missiles, and the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles – Extended Range (JASSM-ER), which gets $490 million to increase procurement by 245 missiles.

A $250 million boost to the Tomahawk cruise missile program, meanwhile, will increase the “production rate to 800 per year through added capacity and second sourcing,” the plan states.

On the supply chain side, $1 billion earmarked for one-way attack drones will be given to the Pentagon’s Defense Autonomous Warfare Group (DAWG), which coordinates development and fielding of drones.

The $200 million in funding for the current solid rocket motor industrial base “will focus on enhancing the production of L3 Harris SRMs, including the MK-72 and MK-104, which are critical components for the SM-2, SM-3, and SM-6 missile systems,” the plan states, noting that “these efforts are essential to ensuring the reliability and availability of these key weapons systems.”

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The Pentagon’s acquisition and research arms are “conducting joint analysis” on how to spend $400 million on the emerging solid rocket motor industrial base.

The reconciliation blueprint laid out $400 million for hypersonic weapons programs, $133 million of which will go to the Air Force’s Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon program to facilitate modified mounting rails on the B-52, among other efforts.

Another $133 million will go the Navy’s Multi-Mission Affordable Capacity Effector (MACE) effort, which will support development of the air-launched anti-ship cruse missile and integration on the F/A-18. The remainder of the funding is set to go to the Army and Navy’s joint Common Hypersonic Glide Body program, to accelerate production of the hypersonic weapon.

Spending details for air-to-air missiles — which could include the AMRAAM or its follow on — as well as Army long range ballistic missiles remain classified.

Golden Dome

While the spending plan doesn’t offer an in-depth investment roadmap for Golden Dome, it does broadly outline how it will spend an additional $24.4 billion this year on missile defense initiatives. 

From that pot, almost $2 billion will be spent on improvements to ground-based missile defense radars, $800 million on accelerating development and deployment of next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile defense systems, and $408 million to bolster the Army’s space and strategic missile test ranges.

An additional $2.2 billion is also slated to be spent on developing systems to counter the growing threat from incoming hypersonic weapons.

And up in space, the department offers a peak at forthcoming spending plans with $500 million slated to support the space launch infrastructure, and $7.2 billion directed towards the “development, procurement, and integration of space-based sensors,” though that investment is still “pending approval,” according to the document.

The Pentagon also wants to spend an additional $2 billion this year on sensors capable of detecting and precisely tracking airborne targets, once again marked as “pending approval.”

In recent weeks, senior Pentagon officials have made clear that integrating sensors and interceptors into a seamless network is one of the biggest challenges for the Trump administration’s ambitious Golden Dome missile defense initiative. 

Air Superiority

While the reconciliation legislation included billions for programs such as the sixth-generation F-47 fighter, Collaborative Combat Aircraft well as mysterious Air Force and Navy long-range strike aircraft, the Pentagon kept all details about its planned investments in those areas classified.

However, the reconciliation plan does signal that the Navy may soon press forward with a contract decision on its F/A-XX fighter, which has been held up for about a year due to White House concerns about the industrial base’s ability to handle production of two new fighter jets.

The $750 million included in the legislation “provides funds in support of the F/A-XX milestone decision. Funds will support critical design, risk reduction, and technology maturation efforts toward meeting operational requirements,” the plan states.

The implementation plan also fills in gaps on investments in legacy systems. Of the $3.1 billion for F-15EX, $910 million will support contract awards in FY26 that include executing an option for conformal fuel tanks, long-lead procurement for Lot 7 and advance procurement for lot 8, and funds for lot 7 weapons requirements.

In the area of F-16 electronic warfare, $187 million will support the ongoing development of the Viper Electronic Warfare Suite (IVEWS) , including the procurement of the first six low-rate production systems for the operational fleet.

An addition of $440 million will pay for one Air Force C-130J and one Navy KC-130J, as well as two conversions of Air Force EC-130Js into C-130Js. An additional $474 million for the EA-37B Compass Call program supports the procurement of 10 additional planes by “modifying ten existing Conformal Airborne Early Warning (CAEW) G550 aircraft by installing electronic warfare modification kits.”

Nuclear Modernization

While key items from the almost $11 billion in spending associated with the nuclear triad remain classified, the spend plan reveals key details on where funds are headed.

The biggest chunk of the $2.5 billion designated for the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program is meant to “make strategic investments throughout the supply chain to increase production capability for Solid Rocket Boosters and other missile components,” with about $1.3 billion going toward technical maturity and risk reduction activities on the Northrop Grumman contract.

Another major pot of funding is expected to be spent on risk reduction activities for the missile silos and other infrastructure associated with the program, with $689 million going toward “launch silo/launch center prototypes to reduce program risk, inform design and construction techniques, and optimize cost/schedule/performance trades,” the plan states.

The reconciliation legislation also included $210 million for MH-139 helicopters, which will allow the Air Force to buy six additional aircraft with a contract award anticipated in March.

Shipbuilding

The allocation plan also dedicates roughly $29 billion to bolster Navy shipbuilding and resurrect the U.S. maritime industrial base. For example, the funding plan calls for investing $4.6 billion toward a second Virginia-class submarine in FY26, $5.4 billion for two additional guided-missile destroyers, and $2.7 billion to procure three T-AO fleet replenishment oilers. Additionally, the plan allots nearly $1.5 billion toward an amphibious warship contract for three amphibious transport docks and one amphibious assault ship.

Likewise, it would funnel billions into expanding production of unmanned vessels. For example, the plan calls for $1.5 billion to expand production of small unmanned surface vessels (SUSV), and $2.1 billion toward medium unmanned surface vessels (MUSV). The plan also calls for pouring in $1.3 billion to expand unmanned underwater vehicle production across several projects, including backing the completion of payload development, integration, testing and fielding of the Dragonfish large displacement unmanned underwater vehicle (LDUUV) to support INDOPACOM.

It also invests almost $2.7 billion in advanced manufacturing upgrades for the Navy’s industrial base. Some $500 million falls under the heading of DoD-wide “Munitions & Supply Chain” investments and the remaining $2.19 billion under “Shipbuilding.” The plan includes $50 million for “additive manufacturing, automation, and advanced metallurgy” just for machining propellers, plus $450 million for producing and welding wires, of which military aircraft and warships may have miles.

Another $450 million goes to AI and automation at shipyards and their suppliers, $250 million to general “advanced manufacturing” upgrades, and $362.4 million to an array of programs at NAVSEA and NAVAIR, including metal additive manufacturing. There are also some site-specific investments: $492 million goes to a “next generation shipbuilding” upgrade at the Mobile Navy Yard in Alabama, while another $500 million goes to to submarine manufacturing upgrades at Electric Boat and Newport News.

The funding priorities outlined in the framework are in alignment with an executive order President Donald Trump signed in April 2025 aimed at restoring American maritime dominance, according to the allocation plan.

Carley Welch and Sydney J. Freedberg contributed to this story.