Pentagon’s War Chest Unleashed: Multi-Billion Push for Next-Gen Munitions

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Research facilities within the Pentagon are intensifying their quest for armaments suitable for large-scale production—a venture anticipated to be bolstered by several billion dollars from the department’s forthcoming fiscal 2027 budget proposal, alongside tens of billions in subsequent years.

A document outlining key facts, released by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget on April 3, states that a primary objective for the Pentagon in 2027 involves the “expedited acquisition of 12 vital munitions,” without detailing the specific armaments or their respective monetary allocations.

However, OMB also published figures indicating a substantial increase in projected expenditures for all Air Force missiles and bombs in 2027, with even greater sustained expansion thereafter, significantly surpassing the service’s recent outlays for munitions.

The Pentagon’s request for Air Force missile procurement in fiscal 2027 totals $11.36 billion. Of this sum, $6.8 billion is designated within the core budget, with an additional $4.56 billion in reconciliation funds likely to be approved by Congress later this year.

In fiscal 2025, OMB reports that the service allocated $5.14 billion for armament acquisition, augmented by reconciliation funding that arrived near the close of the year. For 2026, the agency noted $3.7 billion in this particular account.

Beyond merely doubling within a single year, Air Force munitions spending is poised for an almost eightfold rise throughout the 2020s, according to OMB’s projections.

Air Force Missile Procurement Funding

*Information sourced from OMB’s Public Budget Database

Produced in Quantity

The OMB fact sheet indicates that the 2027 budget will contribute to augmenting capabilities within the defense industrial sector, thereby “establishing a framework for scalable future munitions manufacturing.”

Expanding fabrication to yield armaments in considerable volume has garnered increasing interest over the past few years, and the Pentagon’s science and technology leadership is taking measures to advance this objective.

Three communications to industry from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Air Force Research Lab are soliciting both a novel, economical cruise missile and methodologies for manufacturing munitions propulsion, avionics, and sensors at reduced expense and in larger quantities.

Two requests for information from industry, published online by DARPA on March 31, seek overarching solutions to challenges in munitions production.

The first endeavors to gather insights on “cutting-edge development and manufacturing procedures for missile propulsion systems.”

The document characterizes propulsion systems as a “notorious bottleneck in missile fabrication.”

The agency is exploring innovations capable of shortening the production timeframe from several months to mere days, and “potentially hours.”

The second DARPA announcement aims to gain a clearer understanding of the industry and supplier ecosystem for avionics and sensors intended for air-to-air weaponry. This notice seeks to utilize the collected information to develop cost-effective weapons at scale, particularly by incorporating this technology into missile systems.

“DARPA desires to comprehend emerging technologies that can substantially truncate this integration period,” the document states.

Ammunition provisions of all varieties have become a central focus during recent weeks of Operation Epic Fury, which has witnessed the United States strike over 15,000 targets since the conflict commenced on Feb. 28.

In early March, President Donald Trump declared preliminary agreements with arms manufacturers to quadruple the output of sophisticated munitions such as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, and Patriot interceptors.

In February, RTX announced accords that encompassed heightened production of the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, or AMRAAM, Standard Missile-3, SM-6, and Tomahawk missiles.

Trump also convened with senior executives from RTX, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, L3Harris, Honeywell Aerospace, Boeing, and BAE Systems at the White House on March 6. The president indicated that the production expansion deals initiated three months prior and that U.S. reserves of medium- and upper-medium-grade armaments constituted a “virtually limitless supply.”

The AFRL posting invites industry to devise multiple weapons from various suppliers that fulfill the requirements for extensive, economical, mass-produced cruise missiles capable of traversing at least 350 nautical miles at a unit cost below $250,000.

The notification mandates a flight demonstration within an unspecified number of months following contract award, and another culminating flight event within 16 months of contract award.

AFRL intends to involve up to five vendors in these flight demonstrations.

The concluding event will feature at least four affordable, widely-produced cruise missiles that share data via a link and coordinate to engage a target, subsequently re-engaging based on revised, combat-informed protocols, all within an environment potentially lacking GPS, as detailed in the posting.

These are by no means the inaugural ventures into munitions by both DARPA and AFRL.

Novel liquid rocket engine technology is being developed by Ursa Major utilizing the company’s Draper engine. The collaboration, announced by AFRL in 2023, saw the vehicle attain supersonic velocities in trials conducted in March.

In 2025, DARPA supervised the successful validation of rotating detonating engine technology within its Gambit program, initiated in 2022. This endeavor seeks to construct an affordable, high-supersonic, long-range munition for striking air-to-ground objectives. The more compact technology provides additional internal volume for fuel within munitions, thereby extending their operational range.

AFRL also sought industry assistance in expediting schedules for integrating software into advanced weaponry. This initiative, declared in July 2024, aimed to employ innovative modular software frameworks and AI-driven decision-making to accelerate the procedure.

“The core issue is the pace at which it takes, or the duration required, to enhance weapons,” stated Dr. Will Curtis, AFRL Munitions Directorate science and technology advisor, at the time. “Typically, this is gauged in years. One might deploy a weapon and identify a flaw. The subsequent time needed to rectify that via some modification, be it hardware or software, spans years. We aim to condense that timeframe to months, weeks, or even days.”

In 2020, DARPA launched two avant-garde munitions initiatives that directly addressed Air Force requirements: Gunslinger and LongShot.

The Gunslinger program sought a novel air-launched missile outfitted with a gun for deployment in both counterterrorism operations and aerial combat. The LongShot program developed an air-launched vehicle capable of deploying existing air-to-air armaments. That initiative subsequently evolved into the X-68A drone, which is slated for flight tests this year.

The auditory version of this piece is presented courtesy of the Air & Space Forces Association, which venerates and assists our Airmen, Guardians, and their relatives. Discover additional details at afa.org