Space Force Spending Could Hit $40B in 2026

Extra funds for the Golden Dome missile defense shield could push Space Force spending to $40 billion in 2026, a 30 percent leap from this year, if the reconciliation bill being now before Congress and the President’s new budget proposal both pass.

But with $13.8 billion in one-time reconciliation funds, the outlook for future years remains unclear.

The White House said last month that the Pentagon’s “base” budget earmarked just $26.4 billion for the five-year-old Space Force, a decrease versus prior years. But in more detailed plans unveiled June 26, the total picture came into focus.

If combined, reconciliation and the budget measure would make 2026 the first year ever that defense spending reached $1 trillion. But lawmakers, industry executives, and experts worry that piling extra funds into a one-time supplemental bill, rather than the base budget, will not yield the kind of sustained growth in defense spending necessary to improve readiness and modernize for continuing and emerging threats.

“I have said for months that reconciliation defense spending does not replace the need for real growth in the military’s base budget,” said Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in May. 

Reconciliation, the critics say, only provides a temporary increase, and since budget planners base future spending on the prior year’s base budget, relying on supplemental spending adds risk to major programs. 

Eric Fanning, CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association, called the reconciliation bill “a sugar high” at a conference last month, warning industry would see it as an inconsistent demand signal. Getting the bill through Congress, meanwhile, has proven more challenging than the White House had hoped. As Anthony “Lazer” Lazarski, of Cornerstone Government Affairs, said on a recent Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies’ podcast, passage has proven to resemble “a very large pig going through the python.”

For the Space Force and Golden Dome, it’s unclear how much can be accomplished with a $13.8 billion down payment on space-based missile interceptors and new tracking and targeting satellites. Some estimates for the total cost of such a system have ranged from about $175 billion to more than $540 billion. 

For now, most of that of the reconciliation money earmarked for the Space Force is for Golden Dome-related research, development, test, and evaluation, according to senior officials and budget documents. 

Most details related to Golden Dome are classified. Until Space Force Gen. Michael A. Guetlein is confirmed as its program manager, a defense official said, “the breakout and funding for those efforts” won’t be released. The military services have yet to release its “justification books” detailing all its spending plans for fiscal 2026. 

The Pentagon, meanwhile, is taking a “‘one budget, two bills’ approach for the FY ’26 budget,” according to a senior budget official speaking on background. Documents released by the Defense Department and the Senate Armed Services Committee on June 25 and 26 layout how USSF would spend its money:  

Space Force 2026 Budget

Long Range Kill Chains

According to a DOD budget document, about $7.7 billion in reconciliation spending will fund “Long Range Kill Chains” for the Space Force. In 2025, when the Space Force earmarked just $244 million for the program, it noted a focus on ground moving target indications from space. For 2026, the billions under that category appear to be for other space-related work; ground moving target indication is now in a new account, funded with a little more than $1 billion. 

The reconciliation bill is still a moving target itself. The latest reconciliation bill language released by the Senate Armed Services Committee included $150 million for ground targeting satellites, $125 million for military space communications, and $350 million for space command and control. It also includes $2 billion for airborne targeting satellites, $5.6 billion for space-based interceptors, and $7.2 billion for space-based sensors. It is unclear if these together fund “Long Range Kill Chains.”  

Missile Warning 

In addition to the Long Range Kill Chains program, the DOD budget document details major funds going to missile warning programs that could be part of Golden Dome. The Space Development Agency’s “Tracking Layer,” which will include numerous small satellites in low-Earth orbit, would get $2.58 billion total if both measured passed, including more than $800 million from reconciliation.  

The Next-Gen Overhead Persistent Infrared program, which includes elements on the ground and in geosynchronous and polar orbits, would receive nearly $1.9 billion, including more than $900 million from reconciliation. 

Both would receive hundreds of millions of dollars more than was projected in the last future years defense plan issued a year ago. Among missile warning program, the one program that would appear to face a cut is the planned Resilient MW/MT medium-Earth-orbit constellation, which appears to face a modest $28 million haircut, from $714 million to $686 million. 

All told, missile warning programs account for more than 12 percent of the entire Space Force budget. 

SATCOM 

Satellite communications continues to be another area of major investment. The DOD budget document details $1.23 billion in research and development for Evolved Strategic SATCOM, which are for communicating with nuclear forces, and $571 million for jam-resistant tactical SATCOM technology. 

Pentagon Editor Chris Gordon contributed to this report.