Pentagon wants $1.5 trillion budget for Golden Dome, drones, troop raises [View all]

Source: The Hill

04/21/26 1:26 PM ET


President Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense budget request includes a new “presidential priorities” category, earmarking $750 billion for the likes of the Golden Dome missile defense system, drones, artificial intelligence and building up the defense industrial base, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.

With a 42 percent increase in the Defense Department’s funding from last year, the requested budget for 2027 would be the biggest year-over-year increase in military spending since the end of World War II. The budget “will be the largest investment in military capabilities in over a generation,” Jules ‘Jay’ Hurst, who performs the duties of Pentagon comptroller, told reporters.

“It steers our homeland and military advantage through investments in the Golden Dome missile defense system, drone dominance and space superiority, including nearly doubling the Space Force budget and tripling spending on drone and counter drone capabilities,” Hurst said.

Last year the White House requested just over $892 billion for military spending, a number that was pushed to more than $1 trillion with a $150 billion supplemental budget request later added. The Trump administration hopes to achieve its staggering new figure by proposing $350 billion pushed through in the reconciliation process and allocating the remaining $1.15 trillion in the base defense budget of the upcoming National Defense Authorization Act.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5841366-defense-department-2027-budget-request-golden-dome-drones-troops/