DoD tells House committee its FY26 request focuses on modernization, industrial base and ‘‘Golden Dome’’ missile defenses

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told the House Armed Services Committee that the Department of Defense’s fiscal year 2026 budget request is aimed at rebuilding readiness and modernizing the force to meet what he described as “urgent and complex” threats from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.

Hegseth said the administration’s FY26 package totals about $961 billion in the defense baseline (and more than $1 trillion when combined with reconciliation measures) and that the request includes major new investments in shipbuilding, a next‑generation air superiority fighter, nuclear modernization, and a layered homeland missile‑defense effort the administration calls “Golden Dome.” “This budget puts America and gives our warriors what they need,” Hegseth said during his opening testimony.

The secretary said the request reverses what he described as “years of chronic underinvestment,” adding that a recent department review that looked for an 8% savings exercise identified about $30 billion in savings that the department planned to redirect toward higher priorities. Hegseth said the…