Pentagon budget 2026: US President Trump to request USD961.6 billion for DoD

USS Arkansas, a Virginia-class attack submarine, is scheduled to be launched in 2025. The FY 2026 budget request likely contains funding for additional Virginia-class submarines. (Janes/Michael Fabey)

US President Donald Trump released an abbreviated version of the government's fiscal year (FY) 2026 budget request on 2 May, signalling his intent to request a USD961.6 billion topline budget for the Department of Defense (DoD), a roughly 13% increase over the FY 2025 USD850 billion budget request by predecessor Joe Biden.

The topline budget aims to “strengthen the safety, security, and sovereignty of the homeland; deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific; and revitalize the US defense industrial base,” according to a memorandum released by the White House.

The budget contains few specifics aside from funding the Boeing F-47 and a “down-payment” on the nascent Golden Dome missile defence project. Additional initiatives include modernising the nuclear weapons enterprise, expanding shipbuilding capacity, funding orbital space programmes, border security, and “end[ing] wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars on woke climate and [diversity, equity, and inclusion] programs”. Also included is a 3.8% pay increase for servicemembers.

Air

Trump announced the Boeing F-47 as winner of the US Air Force's Next Generation Air Dominance programme in March. Development of the F-47, intended to replace the Lockheed Martin F-22 as the USAF's primary fighter aircraft, is expected to cost USD20 billion, not including procurement costs. Boeing told Janes in March that the prototype is scheduled to conduct its first flight before calendar 2028, entering operational service in the early 2030s.