Hegseth presses Congress for at least US$350 billion more for defence

Minimum defence request in the reconciliation bill

350 US$ billion

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday the Pentagon will seek at least US$350 billion through a reconciliation bill, “regardless of what happens” in the Nov 3 midterm elections.

About US$50 billion of that would go to autonomous and robotic systems, including a new Autonomous Warfare Command he announced in September. He called it a one-time investment, not a yearly one.

“That's how you get from 1,000 drones to 100,000 to a million.”

— Pete Hegseth, US defense secretary

What's next

The bill has no clear path in Congress: fiscal hawks oppose adding to the debt, and a Democratic win in either chamber would all but sink it. A fallback would move the drone money into the regular budget.