The Senate passed its version of the 2026 National Defense Authorization bill late Oct. 9 with new language restricting retirements for B-1 bombers and E-3 AWACS. Now lawmakers from the House and Senate must set about resolving the differences between their two bills, which could ...
2026 budget
The government shut down for the first time in more than six years at midnight, Oct. 1, after Congress failed to pass last-ditch appropriations bills Sept. 30. Troops must still report for duty, but hundreds of thousands of Pentagon civilians are being furloughed under guidance ...
“The United States government is once again careening toward a government shutdown as lawmakers play chicken over legislation that would keep the government running. In doing so, Congress is putting politics ahead of common sense and political theater ahead of its fundamental responsibility to fund ...
The Air Force plans to shutter several units dedicated to training foreign militaries in a bid to save money amid shifting priorities across the Defense Department.
The Air Force hopes to snag $836 million in fiscal 2026 for rapidly deployable air base defenses to thwart incoming drones and missiles.
Senators this week advanced a $852 billion defense spending bill for 2026 that would block cancellation of the Air Force’s E-7 early-warning aircraft program, continue military aid to Ukraine, and replenish U.S. weapons stockpiles in a rebuke of certain Trump administration priorities in the year ...
The Air Force’s helicopter fleet gets a major shakeup in the 2026 budget, highlighted by a decision to modify HH-60W helicopters to ferry VIPs around Washington, D.C., according to budget documents and a spokesperson.
The House Armed Services Committee on July 15 passed its draft of the 2026 defense policy bill, 55-2, in a late-night vote following nearly 14 hours of debate over hot-button issues ranging from President Donald Trump’s desire to use a Qatari jet as Air Force ...
Space Force leaders have touted their “surveillance-as-a-service" TacSRT program as a success story, leveraging commercial firms to deliver information to users on timelines far faster than typical space intelligence assets. Now, lawmakers want the service to put more heft behind the effort—starting with actually funding the ...
House lawmakers are moving to keep the Air Force’s E-7 Wedgetail development program alive after the Pentagon announced plans to wind it down in the coming years.
Lawmakers from the House and Senate laid out competing versions of the annual defense policy bill on July 11, with vastly different potential outcomes for some of the Air Force’s most embattled programs.
U.S. Special Operations Command is once again slowing its purchases of the new OA-1K Skyraider II multipurpose counterinsurgency plane, as the Pentagon pivots its budget to prepare for a high-end conflict following two decades of wars in the Middle East.

