By: Tuva Siegel, Warrior Editorial Fellow

The Pentagon is revving up under a multitude of requests to develop hypersonic weapons, counter-drone capabilities, satellite networks, and overall space dominance to stay ahead of adversaries and meet evolving threats. The layered nature of this request aims to create a multi-domain approach within the Department of War, reflected in its recent budget request.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine testified in support of Trump's June 24 supplemental request on July 21, 2026. During this testimony, Hegseth outlined that the War Department’s allocated $67.1 billion would fund “solid rocket motors, [Joint Direct Attack Munitions], hypersonics, counter-drone capabilities…[as well as securing] digital and space dominance, including resilient satellite networks.” 

With over three-quarters of the total requested $87.6 billion going to the War Department, Hegseth stressed that “we live in a dangerous world that requires bold and swift action.” Caine supplemented this claim with his own framing of the budget request as a "window of opportunity, while time is still on our side.” Caine cited pressure points in Europe, the Middle East, and the Pacific, and argued the "character of war is changing" in ways that require this funding. What this “window of opportunity” requires in terms of “bold and swift action” is hazy, requiring a closer look at the weapon systems and technologies Hegseth identified.

One example of the solid rocket motors and hypersonics Hegseth mentioned could be the Dark Eagle Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), which, according to Congress, is "intended to provide the Army with a long-range, conventional precision strike capability against time-sensitive and heavily defended targets, particularly in contested environments." With a range of 1,725 miles, Dark Eagle consists of a ground-launched missile equipped with a hypersonic glide body and associated transport, support, and fire control equipment. A June 2025 Warrior Maven essay clarifies that Lockheed Martin, with support from Northrop Grumman built the missile component, while Dynetics developed the hypersonic glide body, the part carried in the missile's nose cone that separates once the missile reaches a certain altitude and speed, then glides the rest of the way to the target at hypersonic speed.

Congress has expressed concern over the cost of the program, with $301.8 million in procurement funding going toward LRHW in the DOD's FY2027 Budget Program Acquisition Cost by Weapon Systems. The Warrior essay further explains the cost anxieties by highlighting that the GAO found that fielding the first Dark Eagle battery has gotten $150 million more expensive over the past year, with the Army attributing the increase to "increases in the cost of the missiles and testing issues that resulted in investigations and retests."

A later January 18, 2026 Warrior Maven essay explains that offensive hypersonic capability is seen as critical right now because current missile defenses aren't mature enough to reliably "intercept" an incoming strike, making the ability to strike back one of the most realistic deterrents. Senior Army leaders say Dark Eagle could hit China from Guam, Moscow from London, or Tehran from Qatar, giving targets almost no time to respond. It also moves fast enough between radar fields of view that keeping a "continuous" track on it in flight is nearly impossible, states the essay. 

According to Billy Schaefer, the Leidos Directed Energy Business Manager, “Standard kinetic weapons are not efficient against the small Class 1 and 2 drones…Directed energy technology is mature enough to provide an innovative and effective solution for this rapidly emerging threat."

In response to the most prominent and rapidly growing battlefield threat, Congress previously boosted funding for drone and counter-drone capabilities by $216 million for 2026. But a DefenseScoop report shows that number climbing much higher for 2027; the Pentagon's FY2027 budget request seeks more than $70 billion for drones and counter-drone systems combined, with $21 billion earmarked specifically for munitions, counter-drone systems, and advanced capabilities. That's a jump from the $3.1 billion the Pentagon requested for counter-drone alone in FY2026.

One system that is likely part of this allocated budget is the acquisition of the Bumblebee V2, a next-gen FPV interceptor drone built specifically to physically neutralize hostile small drones. A June 11, 2026 Warrior Maven essay examined a counter-drone reference document from Raincloud Defense highlighting that Operation Epic Fury has drawn heavily on lessons from Ukraine's playbook. In just the first week, per CSIS, U.S. and partner defenses absorbed over 1,400 detected drones and roughly 250 missiles. Bahrain alone intercepted 70 missiles and 59 drones by March 3, while Gulf states reported interception rates in the 80-90% range. Army Lt. Col. Adam Scher explains, “The system is designed to physically intercept and neutralize hostile small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS). This is achieved through a drone-on-drone collision when the Bumblebee V2 directly engages the threat, rendering both aircraft inoperable.”

On a broader scale, Congress outlined the 2023 Replicator initiative, which is meant to “deploy uncrewed systems en masse, allowing the U.S. military to disperse combat power over a large number of relatively inexpensive systems.” The Replicator initiative looks to Ukraine for lessons in cost-efficient solutions, such as possibly the Bumblebee V2. The Replicator initiative could also pave the way for new operational concepts like swarming, where groups of uncrewed systems coordinate autonomously to carry out a mission together, rather than being individually piloted. Getting there would likely require further breakthroughs in AI and networked communications before such swarming concepts could be reliably deployable.

The Space Development Agency (SDA) Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) provides one example of the resilient satellite networks Hegseth referenced. Rather than relying on a small number of highly valuable satellites, the architecture uses a larger network of satellites designed to provide redundancy and continue operating if individual satellites or connections are disrupted. The SDA describes the network as supporting communications, missile warning, missile tracking, and other military operations.

The Tracking Layer could also support the hypersonic weapons Hegseth identified as a funding priority. A January 2025 Warrior Maven essay explains that the satellites are designed to provide persistent tracking of hypersonic weapons, which can move between the fields of view of traditional radar systems. In this context, “space dominance” means maintaining the ability to use space-based communications and sensors during a conflict while preventing an adversary from disrupting those capabilities. “The point with a massive increase in satellites is to not only build in redundancy and resiliency, but also to use breakthrough ‘throughput’ speeds to cover more of the Earth in real time, while networking large numbers of lower-altitude satellites to one another,” explains the essay. 

The Pentagon is increasingly looking to large networks of lower-orbit satellites to make space-based military systems more resilient. Instead of relying on a small number of vulnerable satellites, dispersed and interconnected systems can provide redundancy, allowing the broader network to continue operating if individual satellites are damaged or destroyed. These networks could also connect separate radar systems to create a more continuous track of fast-moving threats such as hypersonic missiles, states a 2022 Warrior essay. 

The systems outlined in the request reflect the Pentagon’s stated effort to adapt to changes in warfare while improving the speed, scale and resilience of military capabilities. Examining the specific weapons and technologies provides more context for the capabilities the supplemental funding would support. The remaining questions are whether these systems can be procured as planned and whether the increase in requested funding will help meet the Pentagon's stated objectives.

Tuva Siegel is an Editorial Fellow at Warrior Maven. She studies English at Kenyon College. Tuva is the author of Drömland, a fictional collection of short stories, and is currently studying weapons and military technology.