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Military Technology 2026: Drones, AI, Hypersonics and Lasers

Military technology in 2026: drones, AI wingmen, hypersonics, lasers, space jammers and shipyards, and where U.S. programs stand against China and Russia.

ByPeter
A gray tailless uncrewed jet with its landing gear down flies low over a dusty desert hillside
A U.S. Air Force YFQ-42A Dark Merlin Collaborative Combat Aircraft descends before landing at Creech Air Force Base, Nev., July 22, 2026. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jake Jacobsen via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23, 2026 — Cheap drones, the interceptors built to stop them and the factories that make both are among the largest new items in the fiscal 2027 defense request. The request asks for $1.5 trillion, a 42% increase over current funding, according to the Department of War’s April 21 release. This report sets out where six areas of military technology stand, using budget documents, Congressional Research Service (CRS) and Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports, and service announcements. All dollar figures are requests unless marked otherwise; Congress has not finished its 2027 appropriations.

Summary table

TechnologyU.S. statusRivals’ statusKey programsFY2027 funding requested
Drones and counter-droneBuying one-way attack drones and low-cost interceptors at scaleRussia mass-produces Shahed-type Geran-2 drones; Iran fires them in large salvosDAWG (ex-Replicator), LUCAS, Merops, APKWSOver $74B for drone and counter-drone technology
AI and autonomyCCA Increment 1 in production; mission software under competitionCSET finds nontraditional vendors winning Chinese military AI contractsFQ-42A, FQ-44A, DAWG$2.58B for CCA
HypersonicsPrototypes, no programs of record (CRS, Aug. 2025)China and Russia have fielded glide vehicles, per CRSCPS, Dark Eagle (LRHW), HACM$37.9B offensive and defensive hypersonics
Directed energyTest and limited deployment; one 60 kW laser on a destroyerRussia’s Peresvet laser deployed since 2018, per the Space ForceHELIOS, ODIN, IFPC-HEL, IFPC-HPMNot broken out in the documents reviewed
Space and electronic warfareMeadowlands jammer accepted June 8, 2026China and Russia field jammers, lasers and anti-satellite weaponsCCS Meadowlands, Remote Modular TerminalMore than $75B for the Space Force
Shipbuilding and munitionsProduction lagging goals, per GAONot assessed in the U.S. sources reviewedColumbia, Virginia, PAC-3 MSE, LRASM, APKWS$65.8B shipbuilding; $52.9B critical munitions

Sources for the funding column: the war.gov release above and CRS report R49023 (July 7, 2026).

Drones and counter-drone systems

The war with Iran has put the cost of drone defense in focus. Iran has launched hundreds of Shahed drones, “as many if not more drones than ballistic missiles,” Dara Massicot of the Carnegie Endowment said in a March 2 interview. She said most were intercepted, but at the cost of near-constant fighter patrols and missile interceptors needed for ballistic threats. Her colleague Steve Feldstein said the U.S. had used its own one-way attack drone, LUCAS, in combat for the first time, at about $35,000 apiece against roughly $2.5 million for a late-model Tomahawk.

Ukraine’s war tested part of the answer first. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told House appropriators in April that the Army bought 13,000 Surveyor interceptor drones for its Merops system in about eight days after Operation Epic Fury began, Business Insider reported. Driscoll put the price at about $15,000 each, against $30,000 to $50,000 for a Shahed. The outlet reported that Merops has intercepted more than 1,000 Shahed-type drones in Ukraine.

The cheapest air-to-air answer is a guided rocket. On Oct. 19 the Department of War announced a framework with BAE Systems to buy up to 25,000 APKWS guidance kits a year for up to seven years, “pending congressional authorization and appropriations,” with a path to 35,000 for allies. Peter’s World covered the deal in APKWS Laser-Guided Rockets: Pentagon Plans 25,000 a Year. Larger drones are changing too: the Air Force is developing a cheaper MQ-9 successor, covered in MMA Drone: Air Force Sets 2028 Date for a Cheaper Reaper.

AI and autonomy

Replicator, the 2023 plan to field thousands of attritable drones, now lives inside the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group (DAWG). Breaking Defense reported that the group received $225.9 million in fiscal 2026 and that the 2027 request seeks $54.6 billion, of which $53.6 billion would come through a future reconciliation bill. Without that bill, the group would have about $1 billion in base funding.

The Air Force’s drone wingman program has moved fastest. On June 17 the service awarded production contracts to General Atomics for the FQ-42 and Anduril for the FQ-44, four months ahead of schedule. The service did not disclose contract values or quantities. It buys mission autonomy software separately, from a pool of six vendors, and plans to pick a primary provider by summer 2027. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said the plan is “to procure over 150 combat capable CCA by the end of the decade.”

China is building its own supplier base. A Georgetown CSET report by Cole McFaul, Sam Bresnick and Daniel Chou reviewed 2,857 AI-related Chinese defense contract notices from 2023 and 2024. It found that legacy state defense firms lead, but that nontraditional vendors and research institutes play “a consequential role.”

Hypersonics

In hypersonics, CRS describes the rivals as further along in fielding. The CRS hypersonic weapons report (updated Aug. 27, 2025) says Russia and China “have likely fielded operational hypersonic glide vehicles—potentially armed with nuclear warheads.” It lists Russia’s Avangard, carried on an ICBM, and the ship-launched Tsirkon, which Russia reportedly first fired into Ukraine in February 2024. For China, CRS cites the DF-17, a medium-range missile with a glide vehicle and a range of about 1,000 to 1,500 miles.

U.S. weapons are mostly conventional, so CRS says they “will likely require greater accuracy” and are harder to build. The Army has fielded prototype Dark Eagle equipment. The Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike, which shares a glide body with Dark Eagle, has slipped: a July 17 GAO report found the Zumwalt destroyer conversion 24 months behind, ship-based flight testing moved from 2025 to 2027, and production “well below the production goal of 12 missile rounds per year.” GAO put the combined investment at more than $50 billion. The Senate Armed Services Committee’s defense bill would fund six fewer CPS rounds than requested, CRS reported.

Directed energy

Lasers promise a deep magazine at low cost per shot, but CRS lists the limits: rain, fog and smoke can cut range and beam quality, and power and cooling demands restrict which platforms can carry them. The Navy’s HELIOS, a 60-kilowatt-class laser, remains on one destroyer, USS Preble. Lockheed Martin said it downed four drones in a Navy demonstration at sea in fall 2025, The War Zone reported. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said in January that “point defense needs to shift to directed energy.”

High-power microwaves, such as the Air Force’s THOR demonstrator, target swarms by disabling electronics instead of hitting one drone at a time. The CRS directed energy report says THOR engaged a swarm of multiple targets in 2023. That report is dated July 2024, so newer program changes are not reflected in it.

Space and electronic warfare

The Space Force’s ground-based jammers are now operational weapons. Combat Forces Command accepted Meadowlands on June 8, describing it as a lighter, more transportable upgrade to the Counter Communications System 10.2. The command said electromagnetic warfare crews “created a silence zone” for bombers during Operation Midnight Hammer. Production of the smaller Remote Modular Terminal is covered in Space Force Satellite Jammers: RMT Enters Production.

Rivals are moving in the same domain. The Space Force’s Space Threat Fact Sheet (July 2026) says PLA exercises “regularly incorporate jammers” against satellite communications, radar and GPS, and that the PLA has more than 510 ISR-capable satellites. It says Russia has placed probable orbital anti-satellite prototypes in orbits matching U.S. national security satellites.

Shipbuilding and munitions production

Shipyards have struggled to turn funding into ships. In April 22 testimony, GAO said Navy and Coast Guard programs are “billions of dollars over cost and years behind schedule.” It said the Navy moved away from the Constellation frigate after exercising more than $3 billion in options, and that DOD does not know what it will need to spend beyond the more than $10 billion already put into the submarine industrial base. The Navy’s goal is one Columbia and two Virginia-class submarines a year. Industry is trying new approaches, including Anduril’s Virginia-class parts deal.

Munitions are the other half of the production problem. CRS counted $95.0 billion in missile and munitions requests in total. The largest single item in its missile defense table is the PAC-3 MSE interceptor, with a $12.56 billion mandatory request for 2,936 missiles. The Senate committee bill would authorize 3,000 rounds of the new Family of Affordable Mass Missiles, a low-cost cruise missile. For aircraft production, see UH-60M Black Hawk: Army’s New Deal After a One-Aircraft Budget.

What to watch

  • Reconciliation: Most of the drone money rests on a bill Congress has not passed. If it fails, the DAWG increase falls away.
  • CCA software pick: The summer 2027 autonomy decision will show whether the multi-vendor model holds.
  • CPS at sea: Whether the delayed Zumwalt flight test stays on its new schedule.
  • Lasers beyond Preble: Whether the Navy funds a second HELIOS-class ship will show how far the CNO’s directed-energy goal has moved.
  • Appropriations: House appropriators cut the CPS request, citing “production delays,” and trimmed some ammunition lines over “unjustified” cost growth, per CRS. Final numbers will show which of these priorities survive.

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