The top items on the Navy’s FY 2026 unfunded priorities list (UPL) are focused on munitions buys and funding the sixth-generation fighter program.
As the top priority at $841 million, the Navy seeks funding to “invest in priority munitions to maximize production lines and replenish inventories expended in recent conflicts,” according to the document obtained by Defense Daily
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The vast majority of this part of the funding request is $694 million to maximize production of Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) with 448 missiles at $1.6 million per round.
The Navy argued this extra investment in AMRAAM “mitigates risk of capability gap while Navy develops future medium range air warfare capabilities.”
The document notes AMRAAM allows F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft to have the ability to engage enemy aircraft at medium to long distances and neutralize threats before they can get close enough to pose a risk to U.S. or allied forces. This level of procurement would also ensure “the Navy retains sufficient stockpiles to support sustained operations in the event of a conflict.”
Other munitions under this first priority include $62 million to expand Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) procurement from 139 to 150 units, a weapon thoroughly used during recent engagements in the Middle East and Red Sea; $25 million to increase procurement of Maritime Strike Tomahawk (MST) from 73 to 86 to maximize production line capacity of a weapon shared with the Army while the weapon is still in its low-rate initial production phase; and $50 million to increase production of Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) from 109 to 120 units to maximize the vendor’s production line.
Sixth-Generation Aircraft
The second item on the Navy’s FY ‘26 wish list is $1.397 billion dedicated to the “Air Wing of the Future,” which the document said will allow the service to award the sixth-generation fighter contract to industry.
This comes after a senior defense official told reporters the Navy only sought $74 million in the FY ‘26 budget request to complete aircraft design of the F/A-XX, its placeholder name for the sixth-generation fighter program, as a way to maintain minimal development funding while allowing industry to prioritize the Air Forces’ F-47 fighter program (Defense Daily, June 27).
At the time, officials said DoD had made the strategic decision to focus on the F-47 in a $3.4 billion request while holding off on F/A-XX “due to our belief that the industrial base can only handle going fast on one program at this time, and the presidential priority to go all in on F-47 and get that program right while maintaining the option for F/A-XX in the future.”
The official said F/A-XX is otherwise in the hands of President Trump, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of the Navy John Phelan.
The Navy’s wish list argued the Navy sixth-generation fighter is a critical component of the future carrier Strike Group and Air Wing of the Future, due to replace the fourth generation F/A-18E/F and EA-18G Growler and use onboard mission system autonomy while integrating with manned and unmanned teaming.
The Navy argued it has “significantly invested in research and development” for F/A-XX since the FY 2021 budget request because of its critical role to effectively counter the modernizing Chinese military.
“The current 6th Generation program has stable, validated requirements, backed by extensive data analysis and approved Initial Capabilities Documents that demonstrate a program that can establish a temporal air superiority and conduct necessary strikes in a highly contested environment.”
Previously, the Navy’s fiscal year 2025 budget request had to cut its F/A-XX request due to “hard choices” imposed by budget caps from the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Navy officials told reporters in 2024 this included cuts of $1.5 billion to $500 million, but they said the service was still committed to the future aircraft (Defense Daily, March 11, 2024).
The latest UPL list argued that the F-35C is highly capable into the near future, but the Sixth Generation fighter will be better equipped to penetrate Anti-Access Area Denial environments to maintain air superiority.
Several other top priorities on the wish list focus on munitions.
Munitions Industrial Base
The third item is $1.4 billion for weapon-specific investments in the Navy’s organic and commercial munitions industrial base to increase capacity, supply chain resilience and accelerate integration.
The document argued because the Navy “continued to expend priority munitions at a high rate” and the industrial base is not able to keep up with that pace with growing demand for increased production, so they require a “significant investment to build infrastructure and maintain requirement inventories.”
Notably this set of funding would be split into $200 million to address bottlenecks in lower-tier munitions components by establishing and qualifying second source vendors and expanding existing ones; $100 million to procure long-lead materials for the SM-6, Advanced Anti-Radiation Ground Missile (AARGM) and Naval Strike Missile (NSM); $143 million to add a scalable second source for Tomahawk cruise missile motors to control long-term costs via competition and adding supply chain resiliency; $129 million to accelerate development of LRASM Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare capability and invest in sub-tier suppliers to boost production from 120 to 240 units per year; $220 million accelerate integration of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) into the Navy’s Aegis Weapons System; $560 million for production improvements, capacity increases and obsolescence for AMRAAM; and $50 million for capacity investments in the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) supply chain to maximize production and recertification.
Rounding out the top five priorities is $235 million to procure another 540 rounds on top of 1,950 in the FY ‘26 request and continued research and development in the HAWKEYE non-traditional sea denial expedition loitering munition in order to accelerate delivery and reach full operational capability by 2027 and $100 million to accelerate development and build capacity as well as over 50 more test article rounds of the Multi-mission Affordable Capacity Effector (MACE). MACE is set to be a low-cost hypersonic air-to-surface missile designed to be deployed from Navy fixed-wing aircraft with a higher payload capacity per aircraft than other developmental hypersonic weapons.
The Navy noted MACE is specifically meant to be able to be produced and fielded in large quantities as a “reliable option for delivering significant damage in a high-intensity conflict scenario.”
Other unfunded priorities on the list include $871 million to procure six airframes to recapitalize C-130T Hercules aircraft to the KC-130J fleet by 2030, the Navy Reserve top equipment priority; $105 million to procure another 18,000 sonobuoy units, and $480 million to procure three more Ship-to-Shore Connectors (SSC) to maintain the production line and reduce the risk of production break in 2027 that would otherwise increase costs and interrupt the supply chain.
The Navy noted the SSC procurement was not otherwise funded in the FY 2026 budget request “because priority was given to near-term readiness and resources were invested in conducting Service Life Extensions (SLE) on existing Landing raft Utility (LCUs).
The list also includes $525 million in a classified item with no details as well as $1.65 billion military construction projects.