Army Spc. Justice Adams conducts preventive maintenance on a M1A3 Abrams tank at Fort Cavazos, Texas, on Jan. 15, 2025. (Nicholas Goodman/U.S. Army)
WASHINGTON — The Army will increase pay for soldiers and spend more on barracks projects in its fiscal 2026 budget with a focus on initiatives that execute the service’s new force restructuring plan.
“Our Army must transform now to a leaner, more lethal force by infusing technology, cutting obsolete systems and reducing overhead to defeat any adversary,” Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said in the budget documents released Thursday.
The proposed budget of $197.4 billion is a 6.9% increase from the budget enacted for fiscal 2025, which ends Sept. 30. The Pentagon rolled out a budget of $848.3 billion for the Pentagon’s discretionary budget, with an additional $113.3 billion proposed in a reconciliation bill now in Congress. The combination would bring the total defense budget to $961.6 billion.
The Army’s budget increase factors in $5.4 billion from the reconciliation bill for items such as integrated air and missile defense, as well as munitions and its supply chain.
“We made some tough choices to shed outdated systems and programs that no longer meet our demands for the modern battlefield,” said a senior Army official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The service has come under scrutiny on Capitol Hill for its lack of details in the plan. Driscoll recently told a subpanel on the Senate Appropriations Committee that more information was forthcoming on the service’s new force restructuring plan.
“What we hope you see in 10 days as we explain our changes and the recycling of this $48 billion, this was not intended to simply be a cost-cutting exercise,” Driscoll said June 18. “Every dollar is intended to help us innovate and move forward to face threats around the world.”
The restructuring effort called the Army Transformation Initiative announced last month aims at eliminating outdated equipment and shrinking the staffs of unit and command headquarters. The plan was announced in part as a response to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth orders for the military services to cut their budgets by 8% and eliminate dozens of general officer positions.
The Army budget plans to divest $4.9 billion in old equipment and reduce ineffective programs, as well as combining some large commands. Some of the cuts in the budget include the decades-old Humvee and the 2-year-old M10 Booker light tank-like armored vehicle.
The service will invest $8.9 billion in developing warfighting capabilities. This includes $1.25 billion for Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft and $723.5 million for up to four prototypes of the next generation Abrams tanks.
The Army projects an end-strength of about 454,000 active-duty soldiers, 328,000 National Guard members and 172,000 reservists by the end of fiscal 2026.
Here are some Army priorities from the service’s budget request for fiscal 2026:
• $76.6 billion in military personnel funding to account for increases in basic pay, housing and subsistence.
• $1.3 billion for focusing on the Indo-Pacific region.
• $2.1 billion for barracks facilities sustainment, restoration and modernization.
• $267 million for holistic health and fitness expansion.
• $2 billion in maneuver short-range air defense, or M-SHORAD, and lower tier air and missile defense sensor, or LTAMDS.
• Invest $1.1 billion in modernizing its organic industrial base to bolster munitions production and sustainment capabilities.
• $858 million for counter-drone capabilities.
• $1.9 billion in bonuses and incentive pay.
