Pentagon unveils $961B budget request: Fund for Golden Dome, missiles and drones, fewer F-35 jets

The Pentagon unveiled details of its billion budget request on Thursday a budget roadmap that may deprioritize new F- fighter jets in favor of next-generation aircraft and drones The budget would reach that figure through billion in its discretionary defense budget and an additional billion through reconciliation the One Big Beautiful Bill the Trump administration is trying to muscle through Congress right now The parallel budget requests include billion for Golden Dome President Donald Trump s homeland missile defense initiative And as the Trump administration moves forward with the Air Force s th-gen fighter jet dubbed the F- the budget calls for a reduction in the next purchase of F- s from to It requests billion for the F- activity TRUMP UNVEILS GOLDEN DOME MISSILE SHIELD BLINDSIDES KEY SENATORSOfficials are still unsure whether the Navy s next-gen fighter jet F A-XX will move forward Waiting for a decision from the secretary of the Navy secretary of defense and the president a defense official notified reporters That's an advancing conversation whether to continue with the undertaking or not The project will proceed right now with minimal funding for design the official declared Required whether other function branches may get a different variant of the F- instead of entirely separate programs the official disclosed the idea is under consideration I would say pretty much everything is under consideration to get the tactical air capability that our war fighters need as hastily as practicable and that's really what we're looking at the greater part is the schedule of all these programs The budget requests funding for three new Navy ships through the discretionary request and another through the reconciliation request REPUBLICANS SQUABBLE OVER TRUMP SPENDING PLAN AS FISCAL YEAR LOOMS 'STAY UNTIL WE PASS IT'The proposed budget seeks billion for the Army billion for the Navy billion for the Air Force and billion defense-wide In the Air Force budget request is billion for Space Force a increase from fiscal year The distinctive budget structure which agents classify as one budget two bills is part of a broader trillion defense strategy when combined with national guard spending at the Department of Strength Administration functionaries have been working overtime to convince lawmakers to pass the One Big Beautiful bill by July The budget asks for a pay raise for troops and it reveals plans to cut its civilian employee workforce by people The Pentagon plans to continue to invest in munitions and weapons systems the Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile Extended Range and Long Range Anti-Ship missile which have longer ranges and may be more effective in the Pacific but it seeks far fewer Precision Strike Missiles The budget boosts spending on low-cost small drones which have proven effective in the war between Russia and Ukraine The E- radar plane will be cut the senior defense official validated due to crucial delays with cost increases from million to million per aircraft and survivability concerns in this contested context In an ideal world Congress would pass separate appropriations bills before the start of the fiscal year on October But in fresh years it has often punted the headache down the road with continuing resolutions or bills that temporarily fund the cabinet at the previous year s levels and omnibuses sprawling bills that contain funding for all agencies in one up-or-down vote