Defence Spending on CrossGov.com

Congress Faces a December 11 Cliff: Government Funding, the NDAA, the Farm Bill and the Cyber Sharing Law All Due After the Midterms

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When Congress comes back after the 3 November midterms, it will have about five weeks before several deadlines land on the same day. The stopgap funding law, H.R. 6500, signed on 2 September, keeps the government open until 11 December. The same law carries the National Flood Insurance Program, the 2015 cyber threat-sharing law, surface transportation authority and the EPA’s chemical fee programme to that date.

The farm bill has already lapsed. The defence policy bill is stuck in the Senate. And a long list of health and tax items runs out on 31 December.

The Pentagon's $1.5 Trillion Request Meets a Stalled NDAA and a Stopgap That Funds Defence at $838 Billion

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The fiscal 2027 budget asked Congress for $1.5 trillion for national defence, a 42% jump. The Pentagon is starting the year on $838.5 billion, under a continuing resolution that runs to 11 December and bars new programmes. The annual defence authorisation bill, which Congress has passed every year for more than six decades, is stuck in the Senate.

The gap between what was asked and what exists is the widest in years.

Iran War Costs Reach $43.6 Billion by the Pentagon's Count as Congress Stalls on Funding and Interceptor Stocks Run Low

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Pentagon’s latest estimate puts the cost of the war with Iran at $43.6 billion as of 3 September. Of that, $11.2 billion has been spent on operations and $32.4 billion is the cost of replacing munitions and equipment, which hasn’t been funded. The figure leaves out repairs to bases in eight countries.

Every estimate so far has been overtaken by the next. The Defense Department’s inspector general counted $33.4 billion through June. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Congress in July the war would cost $37.5 billion through September. CBO, in a letter on 15 September, put the cost through 1 August at about $38 billion, with $2 billion to $3 billion more each month.

No New US Aid for Ukraine Since 2024: Weapons Now Flow Through NATO-Funded PURL Sales

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Congress hasn’t approved significant new money for Ukraine since April 2024, the Congressional Research Service noted in its update of 31 August 2026. The US has committed more than $68 billion in weapons and equipment since February 2022. About $4.96 billion in authority to send weapons from US stocks remained unused at the end of June.

US weapons still reach Ukraine. Since July 2025 they’ve mostly come through PURL, the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, under which European and other allies pay for US equipment. On 8 October the chair of NATO’s Military Committee said Ukraine had received $10 billion worth of US weapons that way.

Golden Dome: CBO Puts the Cost at $1.2 Trillion Over 20 Years While 97% of Next Year's Money Waits on Reconciliation

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On 29 September 2026, Gen. Michael Guetlein told a Senate Armed Services subcommittee that an initial version of Golden Dome, the planned national missile defence system, could be ready by 2028, built from existing radars and interceptors. Six weeks earlier he had put it more bluntly to an audience in Huntsville: if the funding doesn’t come, there’s no Golden Dome.

Golden Dome is the defence programme where the gap between ambition and money is widest. The President announced it in May 2025 at $175 billion, to be fully operational within about three years. Congress gave it $24.4 billion through the July 2025 reconciliation law. The rest depends on bills that haven’t passed.

US Arms Sales in 2026: Saudi F-35s Approved, Taiwan's $14 Billion Air Defence Package Frozen After the Xi Summit

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On 17 September the State Department notified Congress of a proposed sale of 48 F-35 fighters to Saudi Arabia, worth $24.3 billion. It would make Saudi Arabia the second country in the Middle East, after Israel, to fly the jet. The same month brought a $5 billion sale of more than 10,000 bombs and $750 million in tank engines to Riyadh.

Meanwhile a record $14 billion package for Taiwan, mostly Patriot interceptors and an integrated air defence command system, has been on hold since the President’s summit with Xi Jinping in Beijing in May. Taiwan’s defence minister said on 29 September that it was still pending.

US Threatens to Pull Buy American Waivers as Europe Writes 'Buy European' Into Defence Spending

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On 15 September 2026 the United States sent EU lawmakers a paper warning that it “will review all potential response measures” if the EU writes a European preference into its next long-term budget. One of the measures on the table: rolling back the Buy American waivers that let European defence companies compete for Pentagon contracts.

Nineteen of the EU’s 27 member states have Reciprocal Defense Procurement agreements with the US. Under them, American buyers waive Buy American rules for those countries’ firms, and the countries do the same for US firms. Washington is now signalling that the deal works only if Europe keeps buying American too.

CBO Prices the Navy's Battleship Programme at $275 Billion for 15 Ships, With the Lead Ship at $23 Billion

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

CBO estimates the Navy’s planned nuclear-powered battleships would cost about $275 billion in 2026 dollars for 15 ships bought between 2028 and 2056. Its report, published on 5 August, puts the lead ship at $23.4 billion and the rest at about $18 billion each.

The Navy’s own budget put the lead ship at $15.1 billion. That figure was for a conventionally powered ship, and the Navy has since chosen nuclear propulsion. The gap between the two numbers is the first thing Congress will have to settle before it pays for the ship.

Coast Guard Orders 11 Arctic Security Cutters for $6.8 Billion While GAO Puts the First Polar Security Cutter at 2033

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The US Coast Guard has now signed fixed-price contracts for 11 medium icebreakers, the Arctic Security Cutters, worth about $6.8 billion together. The first is due in 2028. Its heavy icebreaker, the Polar Security Cutter, was ordered in 2019 and GAO now expects the first one in 2033.

The two programmes run side by side at the same Gulf Coast shipbuilder, Bollinger. One was designed and built from scratch in the US and has slipped nine years. The other uses a Finnish-Canadian design, with four of the first six hulls built in Finland, and is meant to skip the learning curve.

Hegseth's Acquisition Overhaul Meets GAO's Numbers: 12-Year Weapons Timelines, a Cancelled Frigate and a Late Columbia Submarine

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

GAO’s annual assessment of major weapons programmes, published on 2 July 2026, covered 104 programmes with planned spending of more than $2.4 trillion. It found the average time to field a new capability is now over 12 years, and rising. Of 40 programmes started on the Pentagon’s fast “middle tier” path since 2018, 18 began with immature technology.

That’s the baseline against which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s acquisition overhaul, launched in November 2025, will be judged.

US Spends 3.17% of GDP on Defence While Five NATO Allies Pass 3.5% in the Alliance's 2026 Estimates

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The United States will spend about 3.17% of its GDP on core defence in 2026, according to NATO’s estimates, and still accounts for about 60% of all spending in the alliance. A year after allies agreed at The Hague to spend 5% of GDP on defence by 2035, five of them already spend more than 3.5% on core defence, a bigger share of their economies than the US. Most of the big Western European economies are somewhere between 2% and 2.7%.

National Guard in US Cities After Trump v. Illinois: Troops Leave Chicago, LA and Portland but Stay in DC Until 2029

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On 23 December 2025 the Supreme Court refused, by 6 to 3, to let the administration deploy federalised National Guard troops in Illinois. The Court read the law the President relied on, 10 U.S.C. 12406, narrowly. It allows the Guard to be federalised when the President can’t execute the laws with the “regular forces.” The Court said that means the active-duty military, so the Guard can be sent in only where active-duty troops would be insufficient and could lawfully do the job themselves.

Reconciliation 3.0 Stalls in the Senate: The House's $95 Billion Iran War, Farm Aid and Voter ID Package Has No Offsets

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On 22 July the House adopted a fiscal 2027 budget resolution by 216 votes to 214. It sets up a third party-line reconciliation bill this Congress, worth about $95 billion: $73 billion for the Armed Services and Intelligence committees, mostly for the war with Iran, $12 billion in farm aid and $10 billion for grants to states for voter ID and citizenship checks. It has no offsets.

Two weeks later the Senate version was pulled before a vote, because Republican leaders didn’t have 50 votes.

NATO's Ankara Summit Kept the Text Short for Washington: €70 Billion for Ukraine and a $40 Billion Counter-Drone Push

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Ankara Summit Declaration, adopted on 8 July 2026, runs to six numbered paragraphs. A year earlier at The Hague, allies had agreed the 5% of GDP target in a declaration of five. Short declarations are now a NATO habit, and they say a lot about how the alliance works with the current US administration: keep the text tight, avoid fights on paper, and announce the real work separately.

The summit was held on 7 and 8 July at the Beştepe Presidential Complex, the second NATO summit Türkiye has hosted after Istanbul in 2004.