Authorization bills, appropriations, oversight and export controls, explained with dates and figures.
All 32 NATO allies committed in June 2025 to invest 5 percent of GDP annually in defense by 2035 — at least 3.5 percent on core defense requirements and up to 1.5 percent on defense- and security-related spending — per the Hague Summit Declaration dated June 25, 2025. That superseded the 2014…
The US nuclear triad is the three-legged structure of strategic forces maintained since the early 1960s: land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles on missile submarines, and heavy bombers. The fiscal 2026 budget request includes roughly $60…
The Program Objective Memorandum is the Pentagon's draft five-year spending plan: the funding proposal each component sends the Secretary of Defense in the programming phase of Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution, or PPBE, per the Congressional Research Service. The POM adjusts…
Congress gives the Pentagon permission and money in two separate laws: the authorization act sets policy and ceilings, while appropriations acts provide the funds. The FY2026 NDAA was signed December 18, 2025 as Public Law 119-60, per GovInfo — even as the department emerged from a 43-day…
The fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act became law on December 18, 2025, when President Donald Trump signed S. 1071 as Public Law 119-60, per the GovInfo record of the enacted statute. The Senate had cleared the final text the day before, 77-20, ending a six-month path begun June 9, 2025.