The disagreements in Washington continue. Yesterday, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) unveiled its answer to the House’s $150B defense reconciliation bill and, well, there were some differences.
The SASC package—which will be folded into the Senate’s version of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” to push through Trump’s agenda—focuses way more on air superiority, low-cost tech, and unmanned systems. The Senate is also clearly prioritizing the buildup of US advanced manufacturing capabilities.
Here’s a breakdown:
Things that float: The Senate package allocates $29B to shipbuilding, compared to the House’s $34B. It also:
- Puts more of an emphasis on unmanned vessels, axing plans for a few amphibious vessels and adding $300M in funding for medium unmanned surface vessels (mUSVs). Total spend on mUSVs will now be about $2.1B.
Going nuclear: The SASC version of the bill also increases funding for nuclear modernization, including for the ever-controversial Sentinel ICBM program.
- SASC increased funding for Sentinel to $2.5B, compared to the House’s $1.5B
- Total Senate funding for nuclear modernization was $15B; the House allocated $13B
Get with the times: Unsurprisingly (SASC Chair Sen. Roger Wicker is the author of the FORGED Act), the Senate version of the bill puts greater emphasis on new defense tech.
- The SASC package allocates $16B to the development of “innovative low-cost and next-gen weapons,” compared to the House’s $13.5B.
- The Senate text puts an emphasis on the development of “drones, counter-drone tech, cheap munitions, and artificial intelligence.”
- The bill includes an additional $300M for small drone development and $250M for cheap counter-air tech.
The SASC text includes $187M for F-16 electronic warfare (EW) capability and $170M for the development of an advanced radar depot to build radar and EW systems.
It maintains the House’s $25B allocated for the Golden Dome.
The Senate text also maintained the House’s funding for DoD’s innovation units, including:
- $50M for Defense Innovation Unit OnRamp Hubs
- $25M for the Office of Strategic Capital Global Technology Scout program
- $250M for the acceleration of Strategic Capabilities Office programs
Build up: The Senate package allocates a total of $23B to “re-stock crucial munitions, rebuild U.S. supply chains for critical minerals, and expand advanced manufacturing capacity.” The SASC bill:
- Allocates $3B to the production of critical minerals, to the House’s $2.5B
- Allocates $500M to the development of advanced manufacturing techniques (generally) and about $750M to advanced manufacturing techniques in shipbuilding and naval production
- Increases funding for US production of munitions from $2.5B in the House package to $3B in the Senate’s version.
The SASC text also adds $167M for launchers for Army medium-range air and missile defense interceptors and $200M for the interceptors themselves.
It’s a bird, it’s a plane: The Senate package allocates $9B to air superiority programs, up from the House’s $7B.
- The Navy got a boost of $250M for its next-generation F/A-XX fighter program (a total of $750M in the Senate package)
- The Senate added $270M in funding for “unmanned combat aircraft” for the Marine Corps, plus $96M for the procurement and integration of infrared search and track pods and $50M for F-15EX conformal fuel tanks
- SASC maintained the House’s $678M for collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) and $400M for the development of the F-47
The package also funnels $26B to the Air Force and Space Force.
Super-secret: The SASC reconciliation package majorly increased funding for classified programs across the services:
- $5.13B for classified military space superiority programs (filed under funding for INDOPACOM)
- $300M for classified “military space superiority programs run by the Strategic Capabilities Office”
- $550M for classified Air Force programs
- $480M for classified Navy programs
- $96M for classified nuclear programs
In total, the Senate bill increases funding for INDOPACOM capabilities to $12B.
In case you missed it: The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” is already facing major backlash from staunch Trump allies. Shortly after announcing his departure from the White House (with that black eye), Elon Musk took to his social media network X to call the BBB a “disgusting abomination” and told Americans to urge their representatives to “kill the bill.”
Trump devotee and ex-CrossFit champ Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga) said she agreed with Musk, and voiced opposition to AI policies outlined in the omnibus bill. “I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there,” she wrote on social media.