How the Army could spend nearly $19 billion in RDT&E funding

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2027 budget request for defense spending was the first to hit the $1 trillion mark, and over one third of that sum — expected to be $1.5 trillion after reconciliation funding is added — is for research, development, testing and evaluation.

Should Congress approve the budget, the Army will be allocated $18.75 billion to push forward some of its most high profile programs, a small increase from FY26’s $18.34 billion.

The programs taking up the majority of the Army’s RDT&E funding include the Future Long Range Reconnaissance Aircraft (FLRAA), Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), hypersonic weapons, counter drone tech and Maneuver Short Range Air Defenses (M-SHORAD).

Receiving the most funding of those programs is FLRAA with $2.14 billion dollars. This is an increase from $1.53 billion in FY26. FLRAA, an aircraft that’s designed to fly “twice as far” and “twice as fast” as other assault helicopters, according to the Army, is currently being developed by Bell-Textron with the MV-75 model. The company was awarded the contract to develop the aircraft in late 2022, and Army senior leaders have said they expect production to begin in 2028. 

The next largest chunk of RDT&E funding within the service is for the THAAD program at $1.05 billion. The THAAD system, made by Lockheed Martin, is a mobile truck-mounted air defense system that is “highly effective against ballistic missile threats,” according to the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). 

The Army already operates THAAD systems, most recently using some in Operation Epic Fury, though the MDA has been in charge of its development and procurement. Program Acquisition Executive of Fires Lt. Gen. Frank Lozano, however, announced last month that the Army would assume full control of the program starting in FY27.

MDA budget documents from the previous two fiscal years do not disclose how much RDT&E funding was spent on the THAAD program. 

Hypersonic weapons will also eat up a healthy portion of the Army’s RDT&E funding at around $569 million — of which $446.6 million derives from engineering, manufacturing and development (EMD) for FY27. The current budget allocated $545.9 million for hypersonics with nearly $521 million of it for EMD. 

In regards to RDT&E funding for counter-drone tech, the president’s budget request lays out about $542 million, with most of the funding going to systems to counter small drones. The FY26 enacted budget saw nearly $260 million in the same area, signaling the Army could see a sharp increase in its counter drone efforts next fiscal year. This is in line with the Army’s recent efforts to shore up its counter-drone capabilities and plans to set up an Amazon-like market place for counter drones that mirrors the one the service stood up last month for small drones. 

Relatedly, the Army-led Joint Interagency Task Force 401 responsible for the entire Defense Department’s counter-drone efforts regarding homeland defense, received $580.35 million in RDT&E funding for fiscal 2027. However, the funding is under the department-wide portion of the budget. 

Lastly, funding for M-SHORAD, the service’s mobile short- range surface-to-air air defenses aimed at shooting down cruise missiles, drones, low flying fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, could receive almost $461 million in RDT&E funding. This is a pretty sizable increase from FY26, where RDT&E funding for the program totaled $296 million.