In early June, the Trump Administration submitted its fiscal year (FY) 2026 budget request, which included a limited budget outlook for the Department of Defense (DoD) and the military services. Since then, additional DoD budget details have been slowly trickling out, but the Pentagon has held back all but the most basic details of their information technology (IT) and cybersecurity budgetary plans, until very recently.

Defense IT and Cyberspace Budget for FY 2026

Now, three months after the initial discretionary budget release, the DoD has released their FY 2026 Information Technology and Cyberspace Activities (IT/CA) Budget Request Overview, providing basic details of what they are currently spending and want to receive for both their IT and cyber-related efforts in the coming fiscal year (which begins in just a few weeks.)

In the IT/CA budget overview, DoD provides department-wide top-line numbers for the four categories that comprise their total IT budget. One category – the Unclassified IT Budget for non-National Security Systems (NSS) – represents DoD spending on IT initiatives listed within the IT Portfolio data traditionally available on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) IT Dashboard. However, to date OMB has yet to update the IT Dashboard with FY 2026 IT Portfolio data. This is the first time in memory that DoD has beaten OMB in publishing their yearly IT budget information.

For the remaining three DoD IT categories – Unclassified IT Budget NSS, Classified IT and Classified Cyber – simple topline numbers are all that DoD provides, with no further description of what lies behind the numbers or increases/decreases. This sustains the trend of DoD withholding from public view all but the most basic IT program information for 50-60% of their IT budget.

Note: The FY 2026 IT/CA budget does not include reconciliation funding, an element that is included in the larger DoD discretionary budget artifacts across all components. While it would be speculation to conclude that at least some of the DoD’s requested FY 2026 reconciliation funding might go for IT and/or Cyber priorities, it does not seem unreasonable. Something to watch.

Most DoD IT and Cyber Budget Categories Grow for FY 2026

Across all four budget categories, the DoD is requesting a total $66.1B for FY 2026, up 2.8% from the $64.3B estimated for FY 2025 under a full-year continuing resolution (CR), and 2.9% above the $64.2B spent in FY 2024. Included in that topline, Unclassified IT non NSS receives $32.5B (+3.3%), Classified Cyber receives $14.3B (+7.2%) and Classified IT receives $2.6B (+11.3%). At $16.7B for FY 2026, Unclassified IT NSS sees an 11.3% reduction from FY 2025.

DoD’s Cyber Budget Has Grown in Proportion

It is noteworthy that Classified Cyber portion has grown to consistently receive at least 20% of the total DoD IT budget over the last five budget cycles, with it accounting for 21% in FY 2024 and 2025 and is slated to receive 22% for FY 2026.

With the exception of 18% ($9.8B) in FY 2021, Cyber has accounted for 20% or more of the actual (books closed) total DoD spent on IT since FY 2020: 20% in FY 2023 and FY 2022 (as reported in the FY 2025 and FY 2024 budget requests, respectively) and 22% in FY 2020 (as reported in the FY 2022 request, which was the first year DoD publicly reported stand-alone Classified Cyber budget numbers). While the FY 2026 budget estimates that DoD spent $13.4B (21% of total IT) on Cyber in FY 2025, we will not know for sure until the final/actual number is released in the FY 2027 budget request next year. But there appears to be a trend.

Defense Component IT/Cyberspace Activities Budgets

The DoD provides some basic component-specific budget data as well, although not as granular nor fully aligned to the other categories. The $66.1B in FY 2026 Total IT/CA dollars are spread across Defense-wide efforts and the three military departments (MILDEPs), with the Army receiving $16.8B (-3% from FY 2025), Navy receiving $13.3B (+3%) and Air Force getting $11.8B (-4%). Defense-wide receives $24.2B (+11%) for FY 2026.

DoD FY 2026 Cyberspace Activities Budget

The DoD sub-divides their cyberspace activities (CA) budget into three portfolios – cybersecurity, cyberspace operations, and research and development (R&D). The total CA budget for FY 2026 of $14.3B represents a $968M increase over the $13.4B FY 2025 Enacted level. Cybersecurity sees a $1.1B increase for FY 2026, while Cyberspace Operations and Cyber R&D see reductions of $114M and $32M, respectively.

The DoD segments their Cyberspace Operations (CO) budget category shown above to break out funding for the Cyber Mission Force (CMF), which receives a nominal $88M increase in FY 2026. DoD used to include a funding breakout under CO for the US Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM HQ), which historically ran in the $300M range. DoD began zeroing out the USCYBERCOM HQ line item with the 2025 budget submission, and it appears to be contained within the CMF budget line.

The remaining $2.9B in CO budget category, formerly listed as All Other in previous budgets, funds CO activities within the service branches, the Joint Staff (JS), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), National Security Agency (NSA), and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)).

Cyberspace Activities Budgets Across the DoD Components

Although much of DoD’s IT and cyber budget information is cryptic and brief, the total CA budget is the one instance where DoD provides some year-to-year budget comparisons among the MILDEPs.

For FY 2026, DoD is pursuing a roughly 15% increase in CA budgets for the Air Force and Navy and a 5% increase for Defense-wide CA. Only the Army is slated for a year-to-year decrease of 2% to land at just under $1.9B. Overall, the FY 2026 CA top-line budget request would be a 7% increase over the FY 2025 enacted level.

FY 2026 increases notwithstanding, these component budget levels warrant some context. Except for the Navy, every component saw multimillion-dollar restatements downward in their final FY 2024 budgets as reflected in the new FY 2026 submission. The Air Force, Army, and Defense-wide budgets saw $500M, $400M and $180M downward restatements for FY 2024, respectively, while the Navy lists a $38M upward movement. These revised final FY 2024 levels carried over into their FY 2025 enacted levels and reset the growth baselines for FY 2026.

DoD Cyber Priorities for FY 2026

DoD gives no further detail into the budget allocations in their FY 2026 IT/CA budget overview. The only publicly available details into their cyber spending priorities come in their department-wide FY 2026 Budget Request Overview, which was released back in August, weeks after OMB release the broad numbers.

Below is a summary of the CA-related priorities for FY 2026 from the overview, but unlike previous years DoD does not include dollar amounts for these items:

Cybersecurity

• Modernizing cryptographic equipment and developing cryptographic solutions
• Working towards the target level Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA)
• Resourcing the CS Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) and DIB CS programs that enhance the DIB cybersecurity
• Accelerating identity, credential, and access management (ICAM) modernization efforts to integrate emerging technology
• Safeguarding all DoD information at rest and in transit
• Implementing the strategic CS program, assessing and evaluating priority DoD WS and DCI, and mitigating vulnerabilities

Cyberspace Operations

Investments in artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML); cyber training and readiness at tactical and strategic levels; joint force integration; defensive and offensive CO; CO intelligence activities; access capabilities; Joint Cyber Warfighting Architecture (JCWA); Hunt Forward; enhanced sensing operations/mitigation; and cyber operations capability development

Focused investments:

• Critical JCWA capabilities integration and innovation, to include accelerating AI/ML initiatives for increased automation and scale of cyber effects operations
• Sensing enhancements to increase Hunt Forward capabilities to detect, monitor, and analyze malicious cyber actors and enhance network defense and monitoring capabilities.
• Enhanced critical infrastructure protections and resilience

Cyber R&D

• Deploying and modernizing existing capabilities and technologies to advance next-generation CS and CO tools development
• Developing the computing, networking, and cyber defense technologies needed to protect DoD information infrastructures and mission-critical information systems

Again, DoD gives no proposed amounts for the above items, most of which are multi-year initiatives.

Impacts of Changing Administrations and Continuing Resolutions

The $14.3B in FY 2026 requested CA budget shown above is $130M below what DoD had requested for FY 2025 in last year’s budget submission. That is a curiosity.

One interesting observation is that within the new FY 2026 submission – submitted by the 2nd Trump Administration, but initially developed by Biden Administration DoD officials – DoD restated downward their final CA budget figures for FY 2024 by just over $1B from the $14.4B that had been estimated for FY 2024 in last year’s FY 2025 budget request, submitted by the Biden Administration DoD.

At some point between the FY 2025 and FY 2026 budget development cycle or final release, it became clear that DoD had spent $1B less on Cyberspace Activities in FY 2024 than had been previously estimated. The FY 2024 restatement/reduction primarily fell within the Cyberspace Operations category, and to a lesser degree within Cyber R&D (-$32M), but it was compensated slightly by a $103M upward restatement in the Cybersecurity category.

It remains unclear what is behind the $1B reduction between what the Biden DoD estimated they were spending in FY 2024 and what they, or the Trump DoD, finally concluded had been spent once the dust settled. The changes could be related to administration spending priorities or accounting, but that is an 8% top-line adjustment in the matter of a few months.

While the reasons remain unclear, the impact is enduring. That downward restatement for FY 2024 carried through for the enacted FY 2025 budget under a CR, effectively holding the line on the top-line budget at FY 2024 levels. Whatever the explanation, clearly operating under a long-term or full-year CR – which has been typical for several fiscal years now – has operational and budgeting impacts that ripple through an organization, and this trend shows no signs of letting up.  

DoD vs. Civilian Cybersecurity Budgets for FY 2026

Finally, with the release of the DoD IT/CA budget we can draw a more complete picture of the federal cybersecurity budget landscape for FY 2026.

As a whole, the federal Civilian departments have requested $11.7B for cybersecurity in FY 2026, compared to the $8.3B in total cybersecurity-focused budget dollars among the four DoD components. Further, although some portion of the $5.4B DoD Cyberspace Operations budget may correspond to comparable cybersecurity activities at some Civilian agencies, without significant visibility into those activities it becomes difficult to accurately compare the two segments in greater detail. The two sectors do have some common priorities around increasing zero trust, data protections, identity management, infrastructure resilience and developing cyber-related artificial intelligence capabilities.

Taken together, the total FY 2026 budget request for federal cybersecurity comes in at no less than $20B across the Civilian and Defense segments.