Pentagon Budget 2026: MDA requests USD13.2 billion, prioritising homeland defences

Improving the GMD system has been a top priority for MDA. The NGI is meant to modernise the system's ground-based mid-course interceptors that have a chequered test record. (MDA)

For the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the Pentagon has requested USD10.2 billion in discretionary funding and USD3 billion in ‘reconciliation' funding for a total of USD13.2 billion, according to budget justification documents that were released on 26 June.

The request would mark a USD2.8 billion increase over MDA's FY 2025 enacted budget, and allocates USD10.532 billion for research, development, test, and evaluation and another USD1.607 billion for procurement.

The FY 2026 request includes USD3.2 billion for the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) strategic homeland defence system. The funding supports continued development for the Next Generation Interceptor (NGI), “initiates planning for a third CONUS [Continental United States] Interceptor site and improved ground-based homeland missile defence sensor architecture”, seeks funding “for a second motor supplier for the NGI programme”, sustains the current GMD system, and more, according to the documents.

USD1 billion would go to MDA's command-and-control projects, such as “prototyping and demonstration of a C2 Data Mesh, designed to streamline multidomain, multiservice data integration into a single integrated battle management system”; upgrading the Joint Tactical Integrated Fire Control; buying “long-lead materials for a second Discriminating Space Sensor”; and more.