The chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, in a bid to maintain oversight of the $150 billion poised to be injected into the Defense Department via a recently passed budget reconciliation bill, have sent the Pentagon new programmatic guidance tables showing congressional intent and want to see DOD’s own detailed spending plan by Aug. 22, according to documents obtained by Inside Defense.
“The House and Senate Committees on Armed Services are committed to working with you to implement the One Big Beautiful Bill’s historic down payment of $150 billion to restore American deterrence and support President Trump’s Peace Through Strength agenda,” according to a July 22 letter addressed to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS).
The committees — “to inform the development” of DOD’s $150 billion spending plan — attached guidance tables for the “intended uses of the appropriation.”
Defense spending has never been part of budgetary reconciliation before and the bill — for legislative reasons — is vague in terms of how DOD can spend the funds. But Wicker, during several committee hearings, asked senior defense officials and nominees to commit that they will “unequivocally” follow congressional intent when it comes to spending on specific programs.
The lawmakers also submitted guidance tables for military construction and the National Nuclear Security Agency.
The letter notes that committee staff will be reaching out soon to set up meetings with DOD, the White House Office of Management and Budget and the National Security Council.
The 12-page DOD guidance tables show how Congress wants the department to spend the money in numerous areas, including missile defense, shipbuilding, munitions, unmanned drones, industrial base support and more.
With the Golden Dome for America anti-missile program being a top priority for the Trump administration, one of the largest items on the list would guide $7.2 billion in spending for the “development, procurement, and integration of space-based sensors,” with specific funding apportioned for Space Development Agency low Earth orbit missile warning, medium Earth orbit military missile warning, fire control and space sensors for missile defense and military network satellites.
Other related spending includes $5.6 billion for “space-based and boost phase interceptor capabilities,” $2.5 billion for “military missile defense capabilities,” $2.2 billion for acceleration of hypersonic defense systems (Glide Phase Interceptor), nearly $2 billion for improved ground-based missile defense radars, $92 million for replacement of the COBRA DANE radar and more.
Other major investments sought by the committees include:
-$5.4 billion for two additional Guided Missile Destroyer (DDG) ships
-$4.6 billion for second Virginia-class submarine in fiscal year 2026
-$4.5 billion for acceleration of the B-21 long-range bomber
-$3.6 billion for military satellites and their protection
-$2.7 billion for procurement of T-AO oilers
-$2.5 billion for “risk reduction activities” for the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile
-$2.1 billion for purpose-built medium unmanned surface vessel production
-$2.1 for Air Force aircraft “readiness packages”
-$2 billion for Navy Depot and shipyard modernization and capacity enhancement
-$2 billion for Defense Innovation Unit scaling of commercial technology for military use
-$2 billion for air moving target indicator military satellites related to “Long Range Kill Chains”
-$1.8 billion for Landing Ship Medium procurement
-$1.64 billion for U.S. Special Operations Command equipment and readiness
-$1.53 billion for small unmanned surface vessel production
-$1.5 billion for Army depot modernization and capacity enhancement
-$1.5B billion for “low-cost cruise missiles”
-$1.47 billion for implementation of multi-ship amphibious warship contract
-$1.4 billion to “jumpstart” expansion of the small unmanned aerial system industrial base
-$1.3 billion for expansion of unmanned underwater vehicle production
-$1 billion for border security operations
-$1 billion for offensive cyber operations
– $1 billion for expansion of one-way attack unmanned aerial systems industrial base
-$1 billion for creation of “next-generation automated munitions production factories”
The guidance tables also include $750 million to accelerate the FA/XX aircraft program, though senior defense officials have yet to commit the aircraft and are eying it for possible termination.
Other investments are sprinkled throughout the guidance tables like $678 million to accelerate the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, $361 million to prevent the retirement of the F-22, and $400 million to accelerate production of the F-47 aircraft.
The committees also want to see a $5 billion investment in the critical minerals industrial base, along with a $500 million investment in the Office of Strategic Capital’s loan program related to critical minerals.
Watch Inside Defense for further reporting.
Originally published Inside Defense
