Editor’s Note: This story was updated April 22 with additional information.
The Air Force wants to funnel $1.4 billion into air base defense with new weapon systems designed to protect homeland installations and forward-deployed airfields against drones and missile threats, Air Force budget officials said April 21.
The service’s $267.7 billion fiscal 2027 budget plan earmarks an approximate $1.3 billion procurement increase over approved 2026 spending for a missile defense variant of the Air Base Air Defense Systems, or ABADS, according to budget documents released April 21.
ABADS include two solutions—the Small Unmanned Aircraft Defense System, or SUADS, and its counter-missile variant, ABADS. The first employs electronic warfare technologies and a command-and-control system to detect, track, and defeat small enemy drones. The second detects incoming missiles with the Army Long-Range Persistent Surveillance System and a separate tasking system to defeat them.
“This investment is fundamental to our core mission of defending the homeland and protecting our forward-deployed assets,” said Air Force Maj. Gen. Frank R. Verdugo, the Department of the Air Force’s top uniformed budget official. The “substantial increase [would] ensure our forces can operate securely from anywhere in the world.”
In addition to those systems, the Air Force wants $85.3 million for research, development, test and evaluation to develop new base defense technology, up from $69.7 million in fiscal 2026, per budget documents.
The $1.4 billion request for ABADS is substantially more than the service asked for or received in fiscal 2026. In the 2026 budget rollout, the service requested $318 million for ABADS-MD and $518 million for counter-drone variant of ABADS between the base budget and reconciliation.
ABADS received $137 million in the fiscal 2026 appropriations, an Air Force spokesperson said in an April 22 statement, adding that original 2026 request was reduced after reconciliation funding was realigned for other priorities.
Overall, the Pentagon said it is “reinforcing” previous requests to develop “missile defeat and defense (MDD) capabilities” in the 2027 defense budget. The request funnels $67.9 billion for MDD in the following areas:
- $17.9 billion for the Missile Defense Agency
- $44 billion for regional and strategic missile defense capabilities that are managed
outside of MDA - $6 billion for advanced technology for missile defeat, including test and evaluation
programs and left-of-launch activities
“The FY 2027 budget is designed to bolster U.S. MDD capabilities, ensuring the protection of the homeland, as well as deployed forces, allies, and partners, from an increasingly complex missile threat landscape,” according to Pentagon budget documents.