Contents

• Introduction
• Background
• FY2027 DOD Budget Request
• Congressional Action on FY2027 Defense Authorization and Appropriations
• Funding for Selected Weapon Systems
• Aircraft and Related Weapon Systems
• Communications and Space-Based Systems
• Communications Systems
• Space-Based and Related Systems
• Ground Systems
• Hypersonic Weapons
• Missile Defense
• Missiles and Munitions
• Shipbuilding and Maritime Systems

Summary

The second Trump Administration's Department of Defense (DOD) budget request for FY2027 included $1.1 trillion in discretionary funding and $350.0 billion in mandatory funding. (DOD is "using a secondary Department of War designation," under Executive Order 14347, dated September 5, 2025.) DOD requested $413.1 billion in procurement and $343.7 billion in research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) discretionary and mandatory funding, in part to support weapon systems.

In its FY2027 request, DOD included two types of funding: discretionary funding that DOD requested for Congress to authorize and appropriate for FY2027 through regular authorization and appropriations legislation and mandatory funding that DOD proposed Congress provide in authorization legislation using the reconciliation process. For FY2027, to varying degrees, DOD proposed allocating both discretionary and mandatory funding for programs, projects, and activities associated with weapon systems procurement and RDT&E.

Relative to amounts enacted for FY2026, the FY2027 DOD request for discretionary funding proposed increases to certain aviation, missile defense, missiles and munitions, and shipbuilding programs. In addition, for FY2027, DOD requested mandatory funds for certain Administration priorities, such as drones, the Golden Dome initiative, and artificial intelligence, as well as for various missile defense programs. At the same time, DOD proposed reducing or ending funding for other programs, such as the Air Force's E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning aircraft and the Army's UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters.

Differing views between and within the Administration and Congress over perceived threats, defense strategy and requirements, and program performance have generated and informed debates over funding for weapon systems. DOD officials have stated that the FY2026 supplemental request for U.S. military operations against Iran could include requests for weapons that are included in the department's FY2027 budget submission.

During consideration of a National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027 (FY2027 NDAA), the House Armed Services Committee proposed authorizing $1.7 billion more discretionary funding than DOD requested for selected weapon systems, while the Senate Armed Services Committee proposed authorizing the amount requested; both committees departed from the DOD request for certain weapon systems. As of this writing, Congress has not passed an FY2027 NDAA.

During consideration of a Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2027, the House Appropriations Committee proposed providing $3.2 billion less discretionary funding than DOD requested for selected weapon systems. As of this writing, Congress has not passed a Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2027.

Introduction

This report addresses actions by Congress on the second Trump Administration's FY2027 budget request for Department of Defense (DOD) procurement and research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) funding related to programs, projects, and activities for selected weapon systems. (DOD is "using a secondary Department of War designation," under Executive Order 14347, dated September 5, 2025.¹) It will be updated to reflect congressional actions on FY2027 defense authorization and appropriations legislation and will highlight differences between amounts the Administration requested and those Congress authorizes and appropriates for FY2027. Except as a matter of background, this report addresses neither the DOD budget at the account level nor funding for DOD operations and maintenance (O&M), military personnel (MILPERS), military construction (MILCON), other defense-related activities, or classified funding.

Background

FY2027 DOD Budget Request

On April 3, 2026, President Donald J. Trump submitted to Congress a "skinny budget" proposal for FY2027 discretionary funding. For FY2027, the Administration requested a total of $1.45 trillion for DOD, including $1.1 trillion in discretionary and $350.0 billion in mandatory spending.² The department's overall budget requested for FY2027 was $440.9 billion (44%) more than the FY2026 enacted amount of $1.01 trillion.³ On April 21, DOD submitted additional information on its FY2027 budget request to Congress, including funding requested at the line-item level for DOD programs, projects, and activities.⁴ Spreadsheets accompanying the department's submission described such funding by type: "FY 2027 discretionary request" and "FY 2027 mandatory request."⁵

FY2027 is the second consecutive year in which the Trump Administration stated that its budget request "assumes" Congress would provide additional funding for defense in a "mandatory reconciliation bill."⁶ In an April 21 DOD press briefing on the budget request, the then Acting Undersecretary of Defense (Comptroller) and Chief Financial Officer Jules W. Hurst III stated that the department requested mandatory funding for "things that were kind of a one-time plus up that we really wanted to increase our funding of" and to provide the department with "more flexibility on when we obligate those funds."⁷

As in its FY2026 request, the funds DOD requested in its FY2027 mandatory request are not evenly distributed across all weapons programs. For FY2027, mandatory funding constituted a large proportion of the total funding requested for some DOD programs, such as the missile interceptor known as the Army Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (PAC-3 MSE).⁸ Mandatory funding also constituted nearly all funding requested for certain other DOD initiatives, such as the Golden Dome for America and Drone Dominance initiatives.⁹

Some Members of Congress have reportedly expressed support for using the reconciliation process to provide additional funding for defense.¹⁰ Other Members have expressed concern about DOD's inclusion of mandatory funding in its FY2027 request, broadly, and about the levels of mandatory funding requested for specific DOD programs.¹¹ For example, in an April 2026 hearing on the Air Force's FY2027 budget request, Representative Ken Calvert, chair of the House Committee on Appropriations' Subcommittee on Defense (HAC-D), questioned Air Force officials on DOD's request for mandatory funding, stating, "I would put your priority needs either in the base budget or in the supplemental."¹²

In addition to its request for FY2027 discretionary and mandatory funds, DOD officials stated in congressional testimony that the department plans to submit to Congress a supplemental request for costs incurred by U.S. military operations against Iran in 2026.¹³ DOD officials stated that the FY2026 supplemental request could include requests for weapons that are included in the department's FY2027 budget submission and that such "overlapping requests" could lead the department to revise its FY2027 request to Congress.¹⁴ In June 2026, the Office of Management and Budget submitted to Congress a supplemental funding request for costs associated with U.S. military operations against Iran in 2026 and other Administration priorities.¹⁵

Congressional Action on FY2027 Defense Authorization and Appropriations

In deciding whether or not to authorize and appropriate funding for DOD programs, projects, and activities for FY2027, Congress may consider several potential options. Congress could consider enacting through the regular authorization and appropriations process more, less, or the same amount of discretionary funding DOD requested. In addition to funding provided through the regular appropriations process, Congress may consider using the reconciliation process to provide more, less, or the same amount of mandatory funding the department requested, which may have implications for committees of jurisdiction and levels of budget specificity.¹⁶ For example, the armed services committees rather than the appropriations committees respond to reconciliation instructions from the budget committees. In the FY2025 reconciliation law, Congress provided defense funding for both broad purposes and specific weapon systems rather than for appropriations accounts and did not include a committee report or other accompanying explanatory statement linking each bill provision to budgetary line-item appropriation accounts, as is typical in regular appropriations acts.¹⁷

Actions of the congressional defense committees on proposed legislation to authorize and appropriate FY2027 funding for DOD weapon systems have included the following:

• The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) on June 15, 2026, reported a National Defense Authorization Act for FY2027 (H.R. 8800; H.Rept. 119-698).
• The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) on June 15, 2026, reported a National Defense Authorization Act for FY2027 (S. 4784; S.Rept. 119-127).
• The House Appropriations Committee (HAC) on June 26, 2026, reported a Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2027 (H.R. 9495; H.Rept. 119-715).

Funding for Selected Weapon Systems

This section details funding amounts and quantities for selected defense acquisition programs that DOD requested as part of the President's FY2027 budget. The requested figures include discretionary and mandatory amounts from DOD's FY2027 budget documents.¹⁸ CRS based its analysis of funding for such programs in part on the "major weapons system summary" table published in the FY2027 version of the annual DOD budget document titled Program Acquisition Cost by Weapon System,¹⁹ as well as on programs of congressional interest. The amounts presented in this report may not include all costs associated with such programs. For example, amounts associated with MILCON and O&M to house and sustain such systems and for MILPERS to operate such systems are not included. In some cases, CRS included related programmatic funding that was not included in the DOD document.

Aircraft and Related Weapon Systems

In its FY2027 budget submission to Congress, DOD requested $102.2 billion in discretionary and mandatory procurement and RDT&E funding for aircraft and related systems, including fighters, bombers, tankers and cargo aircraft, attack and utility helicopters, and uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS, commonly known as drones).²⁰ Of this amount, DOD requested a total of approximately $73.6 billion in procurement and RDT&E funding for the selected aircraft and related systems detailed in Table 1—$59.9 billion in discretionary funding and $13.7 billion in mandatory funding.²¹

The HASC-reported FY2027 NDAA would authorize more discretionary funding than DOD requested to procure 12 of the OA-1K Skyraider II close air support aircraft. The SASC-reported FY2027 NDAA would authorize funding that DOD did not request to procure the Air Force E-7A Wedgetail, an airborne early warning-and-control system (AWACS) aircraft that Boeing originally developed for Australia.

The HAC-reported FY2027 DOD appropriations act would provide more discretionary funding than DOD requested for the procurement of additional Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and MQ-1C Gray Eagle uncrewed aircraft, as well as for the development of the Navy F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter aircraft.²² The HAC-reported bill would provide discretionary funding DOD did not request to procure the E-7A Wedgetail.

Communications and Space-Based Systems

Communications Systems

In its FY2027 budget submission to Congress, DOD requested $29.5 billion in discretionary and mandatory procurement and RDT&E funding for command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I) systems.²³ For the selected C4I systems detailed in Table 2, DOD requested $2.1 billion in discretionary base budget procurement and RDT&E funding.²⁴ DOD did not request FY2027 mandatory funding for the selected C4I systems.

The HASC-reported FY2027 NDAA would authorize less discretionary funding than DOD requested for the Army Tactical Network Technology (TNT) program. The SASC-reported FY2027 NDAA would authorize the amount of discretionary funding requested.

The HAC-reported FY2027 DOD appropriations act would provide less discretionary funding than DOD requested for the selected communications systems programs.

Space-Based and Related Systems

In its FY2027 budget submission to Congress, DOD requested $59.7 billion in discretionary and mandatory procurement and RDT&E funding for space-based systems.²⁵ Of this amount, DOD requested $22.0 billion in procurement and RDT&E funding for the selected space-based systems found in Table 2—$18.1 billion in discretionary funding and $3.9 billion in mandatory funding.²⁶

The HASC- and SASC-reported versions of an FY2027 NDAA would authorize more discretionary funding than DOD requested for the Missile Warning/Missile Tracking program for the continuation of the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared Polar (Next-Gen OPIR-Polar) program. While DOD did not request FY2027 funding for the Next-Gen OPIR-Polar program, a provision in the HASC-reported FY2027 NDAA (§1606) would require the Secretary of the Air Force to "continue, maintain, and execute" the program.²⁷

The HAC-reported FY2027 DOD appropriations act would provide less discretionary funding than DOD requested for the selected space-based systems programs. The bill would provide less funding than DOD requested for the Global Positioning System III Operational Control Segment (GPS OCX)—a part of the Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) program—noting that the Space Force cancelled the GPS OCX contract in April 2026.²⁸

Ground Systems

In its FY2027 budget submission to Congress, DOD requested $16.8 billion in procurement and RDT&E funding for tactical vehicles, tracked combat vehicles, and weapon systems.²⁹ Of this amount, DOD requested a total of $4.8 billion in discretionary procurement and RDT&E funding for the selected ground systems detailed in Table 3.³⁰ DOD did not request FY2027 mandatory funding for the selected ground systems.

The HASC-reported FY2027 NDAA would authorize more discretionary funding than DOD requested for the Army Paladin Integrated Management (PIM) mobile field artillery system. The SASC-reported FY2027 NDAA would authorize more funding than DOD requested for the XM30 Combat Vehicle for the development of uncrewed ground vehicles.³¹

The HAC-reported FY2027 DOD appropriations act would provide more discretionary funding than DOD requested for the Army PIM mobile field artillery system. The bill would provide less discretionary funding than DOD requested for the Army XM30 Combat Vehicle, noting that the requested funds were "early to need."³²

Hypersonic Weapons

In its FY2027 budget submission to Congress, DOD requested $37.9 billion in discretionary and mandatory procurement and RDT&E funding for offensive and defensive hypersonic warfare programs.³³ Of this amount, DOD requested a total of $5.4 billion for the selected hypersonic warfare programs detailed in Table 4—$4.9 billion in discretionary funding and $0.5 billion in mandatory funding.³⁴

DOD reported requesting $13.5 billion for the Hypersonic Defenses program, according to the annual DOD Program Acquisition Cost by Weapon System summary document. CRS did not include an entry in the table for the program because it was unable to fully identify associated budgetary line items.

The HASC-reported FY2027 NDAA would authorize the amount of discretionary funding DOD requested for the selected hypersonic weapons. The SASC-reported FY2027 NDAA would authorize less funding than DOD requested—and six fewer rounds—for the Navy Conventional Prompt Strike sea-launched, intermediate-range hypersonic weapon program, partly due to an "unjustified increase" in funding for the effort.³⁵

The HAC-reported FY2027 DOD appropriations act would provide less discretionary funding than DOD requested for the Navy Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic weapon, citing "production delays."³⁶

Missile Defense

In its FY2027 budget submission to Congress, DOD requested $82.2 billion in discretionary and mandatory procurement and RDT&E funding for missile defeat and defense programs.³⁷ Of this amount, DOD requested a total of $43.5 billion for the selected missile defeat and defense programs detailed in Table 5—$15.7 billion in discretionary base budget procurement and RDT&E funding and $27.8 billion in mandatory funding.³⁸

The HASC- and SASC-reported versions of an FY2027 NDAA would authorize approximately the amount of discretionary funding DOD requested for the selected missile defense programs.

The HAC-reported FY2027 DOD appropriations act would provide less discretionary funding than DOD requested for the Army PATRIOT Lower-Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor for the procurement of four fewer sensors than requested.³⁹

Missiles and Munitions

In its FY2027 budget submission to Congress, DOD requested $95.0 billion in discretionary and mandatory procurement and RDT&E funding for missile and munitions programs.⁴⁰ Of this amount, DOD requested a total of $52.9 billion for the selected missile and munitions programs detailed in Table 6—$36.1 billion in discretionary funding and $16.9 billion in mandatory funding.⁴¹

The HASC- and SASC-reported versions of an FY2027 NDAA would authorize discretionary funding DOD did not request for the Navy Sea-Launched Cruise Missile-Nuclear (SLCM-N). In the report accompanying its version of an FY2027 NDAA, SASC stated it was "deeply concerned" by DOD and the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration's "apparent reticence in expediting the development and fielding of the [SLCM-N] program, despite clear statutory direction to do so."⁴² The SASC-reported FY2027 NDAA would also authorize more funding than DOD requested for the Air Force Family of Affordable Mass Missile cruise missile program, as well as the procurement of 3,000 rounds.⁴³

The HAC-reported FY2027 DOD appropriations act would provide less discretionary funding than DOD requested for DOD ammunition programs, including for Navy and Marine Corps artillery munitions, citing "unjustified" cost growth.⁴⁴ The bill would provide more discretionary funding than DOD requested for the Air Force Family of Affordable Mass Missiles.

Shipbuilding and Maritime Systems

In its FY2027 budget submission to Congress, DOD requested $87.2 billion in discretionary and mandatory procurement and RDT&E funding for shipbuilding and maritime systems programs.⁴⁵ Of this amount, DOD requested a total of $67.0 billion for the selected shipbuilding and maritime systems programs detailed in Table 7—$61.5 billion in discretionary funding and $5.5 billion in mandatory funding.⁴⁶

The HASC- and SASC-reported versions of an FY2027 NDAA would authorize more discretionary funding than DOD requested for one additional Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. The SASC-reported FY2027 NDAA would authorize less funding than requested for the aircraft carrier refueling complex overhaul, the guided missile battleship (BBG[X]), and for the procurement of support ships. SASC stated that the advance procurement funding DOD requested for the battleship was "early to need" and authorized funding to procure one fewer submarine tender, a support ship program item, than requested.⁴⁷

The HAC-reported FY2027 DOD appropriations act would provide less discretionary funding than DOD requested for Navy support ships, including for the procurement of submarine tenders, citing a "program adjustment."⁴⁸

Appendix. Selected Administration Initiatives

The HASC- and SASC-reported versions of an FY2027 NDAA would authorize the amount of discretionary funding DOD requested for the selected DOD initiatives. A provision in the SASC-reported FY2027 NDAA (§837) would limit the funds available to the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group and those for the Defense Secretary's travel expenses until DOD submitted congressionally mandated reports enacted in previous NDAAs.⁴⁹

The HAC-reported FY2027 DOD appropriations act would provide the amount of discretionary funding DOD requested for the selected DOD initiatives.

Footnotes