WASHINGTON — The draft version of the compromise National Defense Authorization Act was released Sunday evening, and as first reported by Breaking Defense, it is fully equipped with more money for the Pentagon.
The NDAA features a topline roughly $8 billion over what was requested by the Defense Department. That increase is essentially a compromise from the House version of the NDAA, which stuck to the Pentagon’s budget request, and the Senate numbers, which were $32 billion above the department’s request.
Speaking to Breaking Defense at the Reagan National Defense Forum, Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, emphasized that appropriators would have the last word on the topline, but appeared optimistic that the $8 billion figure could serve as a rough target for the committees to meet around.
“We’re going to put a marker out there that’s like $8 billion above the president’s budget, but we’ll see. It’ll depend on what the appropriators work out,” the Washington Democrat said.
According to a fact sheet released by the HASC majority, the NDAA procurement plan includes $26 billion for shipbuilding, $38 billion for aircraft — including, notably, “full funding” for the Navy’s F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter effort, something that has faced headwinds from the Trump administration — $4 billion for ground vehicles and $25 billion for munitions.
Other items of note:
- Section 1249 attempts to places a brake on the withdrawal of US forces from Europe by requiring specific certifications be handed into Congress for 60 days before forces drop below 76,000 in European Command’s area of responsibility. That same prohibition covers any attempts to “divest, consolidate or otherwise return to a host country any parcel of land or facility” currently under control of EUCOM, or to attempt to relinquish the role of NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander.
- The NDAA extends the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative by $400 million for both FY26 and FY27.
- It also repeals the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) for Iraq.
- Not included: any language renaming the Department of Defense as the “Department of War.” While President Donald Trump has authorized the use of Department of War as a nickname and it has been taken up by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, that title cannot be made official without congressional action.
The entirety of the NDAA language can be read by clicking here.
