The Pentagon is proposing a massive $1.5 trillion defense budget for next year—an increase of nearly 50 percent that would mark one of the largest military spending surges in decades.
The plan would bankroll a wide range of new initiatives backed by President Donald Trump, including major investments in next-generation weapons and large-scale defense systems.
Among them are tens of billions for the Navy’s future “Golden Fleet” battleship and F-47 Air Force fighter jet, and roughly $18 billion for a “Golden Dome” missile defense network designed to counter long-range threats using space-based sensors, interceptors, and radar systems, the Washington Post reported.
A significant portion of the funding—nearly $75 billion—is set aside for unmanned warfare, including drones, autonomous ships, and pilotless aircraft, along with systems to defend against them.
The budget also significantly boosts missile production, with some procurement levels set at 10 to 15 times higher than last year.
For example, the Navy plans to purchase 785 Tomahawk missiles next year—after buying just 88 over the past two years—while the Army is seeking more than $20 billion for Patriot and THAAD missile interceptors.
Trump unveiled the proposed spending surge in a January social media post, arguing it would enable the Pentagon to create “the ‘Dream Military’ that we have long been entitled to” and better respond to rapidly changing threats across space, cyber, and drone warfare domains.
If approved, the budget would represent the largest share of U.S. economic output devoted to defense since the Cold War.
But the proposed budget, which Trump is pursuing through a process called reconciliation, faces a difficult road ahead.
Last year, lawmakers relied on the budget reconciliation process to push the Pentagon’s funding from its initial $890 billion request to more than $1 trillion—a mechanism that allows spending measures to clear the Senate with a simple 51-vote majority rather than the usual threshold.
And that process has angered some in Trump’s own party.
“There is certainly a desire to spend more on defense. How that happens is up to us, not the administration,” a GOP Senate staffer told the Washington Post.
Meanwhile, some Republicans have raised concerns that the sheer scale of the Pentagon proposal could prove difficult to justify to voters without corresponding spending cuts.
Democrats, meanwhile, have criticized several of the headline projects—such as the “Golden Dome” missile defense system and a new battleship—arguing they amount to costly showpieces rather than essential defense investments. “The reason it’s $1.5 trillion is there’s all this stuff that we don’t need and in some cases will not work,” Sen. Mark Kelly told The Post.
Even among Republicans who reject claims of waste, there is skepticism about fully endorsing the plan. Sen. John Kennedy said Congress would treat the proposal as guidance rather than a blueprint. “A president’s budget proposal ... is always instructive, in some cases persuasive but it is never dispositive,” he said.
Others are doubtful the measure will advance at all. “I don’t think it’s going anywhere,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democratic member of the Senate panel overseeing defense spending.
Scrutiny of Pentagon finances has intensified in recent years. A March analysis by Open the Books found the department spent more than $93 billion in September 2025 alone—the highest monthly total in at least 15 years.
Aside from the weaponry and hardware, included in this spending was $2 million on Alaskan king crab last September alone, as well as $6.9 million on lobster tail and $1 million on salmon. The Defense Department also spent nearly $140,000 on donuts, $124,000 on ice cream machines, $26,000 on sushi preparation tables, and a whopping $15.1 million on ribeye steak.
Millions was also spent on technologies, contracts, and purchases from foreign governments and businesses, as well as musical instruments, fruit baskets, office furniture, and stickers featuring children’s characters from Dora the Explorer, Frozen, and Paw Patrol.
The department also spent $5.3 million on Apple devices, including purchasing 400 of the more expensive 512-gigabyte edition iPad Air M3s rather than cheaper models with less storage.
John Hart, CEO of Open the Books, called the Pentagon’s multibillion-dollar spending in September 2025 “unacceptable.”
