The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday voted 26-3 to pass a bill that would appropriate $851.9 billion in discretionary defense funding for fiscal year 2026.
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Weapons Systems Procurement
The committee said Thursday the proposed FY 2026 Defense Appropriations Act would allocate $171.3 billion for weapon systems procurement and $140.5 billion for platform research, development and testing.
The measure includes a $280 million increase in funding for F-135 spare engines and an additional $500 million for F-35 sustainment spare parts; an additional $216 million for drone and counter-drone tech capabilities; $4.6 billion more for air and missile defense efforts; and a funding increase of $5.2 billion to purchase additional munitions across the services.
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Navy Procurement, R&D Funding
The bill would provide $70.8 billion for the U.S. Navy’s procurement efforts and $27.4 billion for the service’s R&D initiatives.
The proposed legislation would provide a total of $29.3 billion in funding for shipbuilding efforts. The Columbia-class submarine program would receive an additional $1.3 billion, and the Virginia-class submarine program would receive $1.9 billion.
The Senate panel also approved a $1.4 billion budget increase for the Navy’s sixth-generation strike fighter program and an additional $100 million to advance the development of a hypersonic air-to-surface missile, called Multi-Mission Affordable Capacity Effector, for the service’s fixed-wing aircraft.
Space Force Procurement
U.S. Space Force would get $3.6 billion in procurement funding and another $15.1 billion for R&D initiatives.
The measure would provide $500 million in additional funding for the continued development of the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 3 Transport Layer and allocate $256 million more for classified space control initiatives.
Under the bill, efforts to transition the commercial procurement of tactical ISR to the Space Force would secure a $50 million funding increase.
