The Department of Defense's fiscal 2026 budget request totaled $961 billion, including $113 billion from the 2025 reconciliation law, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis.
Adjusted for inflation, CBO called the request one of the three high-water marks in defense funding over the past 50 years, alongside requests for 1985 and 2010.
The comparison is not a measure of military activity. CBO focused on the base budget and enduring costs, excluding supplemental and emergency funding used for specific operations.
The missing planning document is central to the uncertainty. Defense did not release a 2026 Future Years Defense Program, so CBO based projections on the annual request, the 2025 plan and other official materials.
Acquisition funding totaled $384 billion, 18% more than the inflation-adjusted amount appropriated for 2025 and 21% more than Defense anticipated for 2026 in its prior five-year plan.
Mandatory reconciliation funding supplied $52 billion for procurement and $37 billion for research, development, testing and evaluation. Together those amounts were 79% of the $113 billion reconciliation placeholder in the request.
Base-budget acquisition funding was $295 billion, 9% below the inflation-adjusted 2025 appropriation and 7.4% below the prior plan. CBO said that pattern suggests reconciliation money was replacing some expected base resources, not only adding to them.
Operation and support totaled $558 billion, including $23 billion in reconciliation funding for operation and maintenance. The law's defense funding remains available through September 2029, unlike a typical one-year appropriation.
CBO treats the reconciliation amount as a one-year increment in its projection. If the higher level persists, future enduring costs would be higher; without a 2026 five-year plan, the report cannot determine whether the increase is temporary or permanent.