Pentagon’s spending plan doubles down on land, air, sea robots

The Pentagon will nearly double its innovation arm, expand the industrial base for cheap maritime and aerial drones, and develop new ways to ensure supplies of critical minerals, according to an unclassified spending strategy for the $151 billion in funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

That money is $8.3 billion more than the $144 billion the Defense Department requested. But unlike normal discretionary funds, the spending is mandatory. The allocation plan obtained by Defense One shows a push to put more of the money to work quickly, despite the fact that the Pentagon has until September of 2029 to spend it. Large portions of the plan are hidden from the public due to classification.

The largest allocations—some $24.4 billion—are for new missile defense systems as part of the Golden Dome missile shield. That includes approximately $2 billion for ground-based radars and $2.2 billion for the "acceleration of hypersonic defense systems." Space-based weapons to shoot down hypersonic missiles during the boost phase receive $5.6 billion. Additionally, the document identifies $250 million to develop lasers or other directed energy weapons that can take down new missile threats, and $40 million to develop cheaper air and missile defense interceptors.

The strategy puts $4.6 billion toward a second Virginia-class submarine and $5.4 billion toward new guided missile destroyers, as expected. It also includes $2 billion to improve the U.S. production of critical minerals.

The plan also includes multiple measures to address what many agree is a key shortcoming the department must overcome as it prepares for high-intensity conflict: getting enough low-cost, highly autonomous drones to the front lines quickly. The spending plan increases the Defense Innovation Unit’s budget to $2 billion—up from $1.3 billion enacted last year. It also includes $1.4 billion to expand the industrial base for drones, $500 million for the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group to prevent delays in the delivery of critical drones, and $650 million for joint innovation programs, such as multi-domain collaborative autonomy—getting sea, air, and land drones to communicate with one another and execute missions with minimal human involvement.

The document illustrates that the department is looking to fund robots across land, sea, and air. The Army will receive $74 million for its Autonomous Ground Fighting Vehicle program, while the Navy will get $1.5 billion for small surface drones, $2.1 billion to expand the deployment of medium drone boats such as the Sea Hunter, and $1.3 billion to build and buy new underwater drones and payloads for them.

In terms of artificial intelligence, the spending plan shows a $450 million plan to apply autonomy and artificial intelligence to shipbuilding and build out a unified "digital architecture" for shipyards and suppliers. The goal is to make it easier for the Navy to forecast needed materials, predict maintenance, optimize construction, and plan workforces. Additionally, the plan includes $145 million for the "development of artificial intelligence to enable one-way attack unmanned aerial systems and naval systems," and $1 billion for the X-37B military spacecraft program.

Additionally, the plan allocates $250 million to advance an AI "ecosystem" and $124 million for "Improvements to Test Resource Management Center artificial intelligence capabilities.”