Pentagon Budget 2026: US Navy relies on reconciliation bill approval to increase spending

The US Navy Fiscal Year 2026 budget request includes funding for one Virginia-class attack submarine, like the one pictured here. (Michael Fabey)

The US Navy (USN) is requesting a Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget of USD292.2 billion, which includes a base request of about USD248.9 billion in discretionary funding and USD43.3 billion in reconciliation, or what the USN called mandatory, funding, according to USN budget request documentation released on 25 June.

While, as the USN documents note, the total request represents an estimated USD29.2 billion, or 11% increase, of funding compared to the enacted FY 2025 spending, the FY 2026 base spending request is essentially flat compared to the FY 2025 enacted, according to members of the Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC).

During a hearing on the budget on 24 June, SAC members berated USN officials for breaking the budget request into the base and reconciliation amounts, saying it failed to capture true naval funding needs.

To read more about lawmakers' concerns about the FY2026 budget request, please see Pentagon Budget 2026: US senators and naval leaders note need for ship-work and munition-production improvements

The USN budget includes USD95.3 billion for procurement, USD93.7 billion for operations and maintenance (O&M), USD66.3 billion for personnel, USD29.2 billion for research and development (R&D), USD7.4 for military construction and USD400 million for “revolving” funding, USN budget documents show.

That breaks down into USD62.9 billion for base and USD32.4 billion for reconciliation procurement, USD87.2 billion for base and USD6.5 billion for reconciliation O&M, USD66 billion for base and USD300 million for reconciliation personnel, USD25.7 billion for base and USD3.5 billion for reconciliation R&D, USD7.2 billion for base and USD700 million for miliary construction and USD400 million for “revolving” funding, the USN budget documents show.