The Department of Defense spends more on research and development (R&D) than any other part of the federal government. Most of it flows through a single giant account — Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) — that pays for designing, prototyping, and testing weapons systems. Inside that live smaller, storied programs like DARPA, the agency that seeded the internet and GPS, along with defense health research and chemical-biological defense.
The history moves in waves. Defense R&D nearly doubled in real terms during the Reagan buildup, from about $36 billion in 2017 dollars in 1980 to about $70 billion by 1987, then drifted down for a decade after the Cold War ended. The post-9/11 buildup pushed it to its all-time real peak of about $92 billion in 2010, before the 2013 budget sequestration knocked it back down.
One quirk to know: the sharp cliff in 2017 — reported R&D fell from about $73 billion to $50 billion — is mostly a bookkeeping change, not a budget cut. The government narrowed its definition of what counts as development, which pushed a large chunk of late-stage weapons work out of the R&D tally.
In fiscal year 2025 defense R&D stood at about $96 billion in current dollars. The 2026 figure of roughly $89 billion is the estimate from the White House budget request. Congress went the other way: the enacted FY 2026 appropriation came to about $101 billion in defense R&D. The budget-cycle section below traces the increase, stage by stage.
The current budget cycle: FY 2026 enacted, FY 2027 requested
What Congress enacted for fiscal year 2026 and what the White House has requested for FY 2027, account by account. Budget authority in millions of dollars.
The research and development share of this budget — as estimated by AAAS, excluding non-R&D activities in these accounts — came to $100.7B enacted for FY 2026 · $132B requested for FY 2027 (+31.1%).
| Account | FY 2026 enacted | FY 2027 request | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Science & Technology accounts | |||
| R&D (6.1-6.6) | $94.9B | $129.4B | +36.4% |
| S&T (6.1-6.3) | $21.7B | $25.2B | +15.8% |
| Adv Technology Development (6.3) | $12.2B | $16.9B | +38.8% |
| Applied Research (6.2) | $7.2B | $6.1B | -15.6% |
| Basic Research (6.1) | $2.3B | $2.1B | -8% |
| Basic research by service | |||
| Defense Agencies | $757M | $800M | +5.6% |
| Navy | $597M | $525M | -12% |
| Army | $528M | $396M | -25% |
| Air Force | $412M | $388M | -5.8% |
| Space Force | $37M | $35M | -4.3% |
| Basic research programs | |||
| Defense Research Sciences | $1.1B | $1B | -5.5% |
| Univ Research Initiatives | $249M | $154M | -38% |
| National Defense Education Program | $146M | $165M | +13.3% |
| Minority Institutions | $100M | $100M | +0.1% |
| OSD Initiatives | $82M | $87M | +5.9% |
| University / Industry Research Centers | $72M | $54M | -26% |
| Other defense R&D | |||
| Defense Medical Research | $2.5B | $1B | -58.8% |
| Defense-Wide Manufacturing S&T | $562M | $582M | +3.4% |
| DIU | $155M | $553M | +256.5% |
| SERDP | $58M | $61M | +4.6% |
| National Security Innovation Network | $0M | $0M | — |
| RDT&E by service | |||
| Defense Agencies | $9.9B | $16.2B | +63.4% |
| Army | $4B | $2.9B | -27.4% |
| Navy | $3.5B | $2.5B | -26.9% |
| Air Force | $3.4B | $2.8B | -16.9% |
| Space Force | $976M | $710M | -27.3% |
| Total | $21.7B | $25.2B | +15.8% |
Budget history
Defense research climbed in two great waves — the Reagan buildup of the 1980s and the post-9/11 surge that peaked in 2010 at about $92 billion in 2017 dollars.
The DOD research and development (R&D) budget, every fiscal year on record.
- 1985 — Reagan defense buildup. Defense R&D nearly doubles in real terms between 1980 and 1987.
- 2010 — Post-9/11 peak. The wartime buildup crests at the series' real-terms high, about $92 billion in 2017 dollars.
- 2013 — Sequestration. Budget Control Act caps pull defense R&D down sharply from its 2010 peak.
- 2017 — R&D definition narrows. Reported R&D drops by roughly a third as the government redefines late-stage development — a bookkeeping change, not a budget cut.
See the numbers behind this chart
| Fiscal year | Nominal dollars | Constant 2017 dollars | R&D share of GDP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | 10,067 | 35,028 | 0.56% |
| 1977 | 11,478 | 37,242 | 0.57% |
| 1978 | 11,944 | 36,315 | 0.53% |
| 1979 | 12,958 | 36,450 | 0.51% |
| 1980 | 14,021 | 36,277 | 0.5% |
| 1981 | 17,363 | 40,912 | 0.55% |
| 1982 | 20,848 | 45,931 | 0.63% |
| 1983 | 23,673 | 49,975 | 0.67% |
| 1984 | 27,935 | 56,929 | 0.71% |
| 1985 | 31,978 | 63,061 | 0.75% |
| 1986 | 35,000 | 67,503 | 0.77% |
| 1987 | 37,136 | 70,054 | 0.78% |
| 1988 | 38,126 | 69,662 | 0.74% |
| 1989 | 38,578 | 67,752 | 0.69% |
| 1990 | 37,869 | 64,163 | 0.64% |
| 1991 | 37,209 | 60,868 | 0.61% |
| 1992 | 37,779 | 60,292 | 0.59% |
| 1993 | 38,848 | 60,577 | 0.57% |
| 1994 | 35,510 | 54,188 | 0.49% |
| 1995 | 35,349 | 52,823 | 0.47% |
| 1996 | 35,783 | 52,483 | 0.45% |
| 1997 | 37,238 | 53,665 | 0.44% |
| 1998 | 37,569 | 53,471 | 0.42% |
| 1999 | 38,888 | 54,672 | 0.41% |
| 2000 | 39,960 | 55,033 | 0.39% |
| 2001 | 42,740 | 57,469 | 0.41% |
| 2002 | 49,877 | 66,027 | 0.46% |
| 2003 | 59,296 | 77,017 | 0.53% |
| 2004 | 65,948 | 83,617 | 0.55% |
| 2005 | 70,269 | 86,464 | 0.55% |
| 2006 | 74,289 | 88,534 | 0.54% |
| 2007 | 79,009 | 91,636 | 0.55% |
| 2008 | 81,166 | 92,224 | 0.55% |
| 2009 | 81,484 | 91,647 | 0.56% |
| 2010 | 82,902 | 92,442 | 0.56% |
| 2011 | 79,112 | 86,480 | 0.51% |
| 2012 | 74,460 | 79,944 | 0.46% |
| 2013 | 65,540 | 69,113 | 0.39% |
| 2014 | 66,505 | 68,874 | 0.38% |
| 2015 | 66,524 | 68,187 | 0.37% |
| 2016 | 72,801 | 74,030 | 0.39% |
| 2017 | 50,374 | 50,374 | 0.26% |
| 2018 | 61,766 | 60,425 | 0.3% |
| 2019 | 64,685 | 62,131 | 0.31% |
| 2020 | 74,105 | 70,262 | 0.35% |
| 2021 | 72,095 | 66,081 | 0.31% |
| 2022 | 79,798 | 68,361 | 0.32% |
| 2023 | 89,554 | 73,362 | 0.33% |
| 2024 | 93,068 | 74,258 | 0.33% |
| 2025 | 95,921 | 74,892 | 0.33% |
| 2026est. | 88,713 | 67,855 | 0.29% |
Where the money goes
The RDT&E account towers over everything else, with DARPA and defense health programs as notable slices.
The major DOD budget lines tracked by AAAS. These are appropriations accounts — they overlap the budget-history series but are not an exact decomposition of it.
See the numbers behind this chart
| Fiscal year | Research, Development, Technology and Evaluation | Defense Health | Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency | Chemical and Biological Defense |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | 32,139 | — | — | — |
| 1976 | 33,125 | — | — | — |
| 1977 | 34,355 | — | — | — |
| 1978 | 34,886 | — | — | — |
| 1979 | 34,832 | — | — | — |
| 1980 | 34,916 | — | — | — |
| 1981 | 39,193 | — | 1,367 | — |
| 1982 | 44,289 | — | 1,488 | — |
| 1983 | 48,184 | — | 1,540 | — |
| 1984 | 54,898 | — | 1,760 | — |
| 1985 | 60,276 | — | 1,251 | — |
| 1986 | 64,949 | — | 1,336 | — |
| 1987 | 67,801 | — | 1,470 | — |
| 1988 | 67,654 | — | 1,594 | — |
| 1989 | 65,869 | — | 2,264 | — |
| 1990 | 62,082 | — | 2,061 | — |
| 1991 | 59,207 | — | 2,397 | — |
| 1992 | 58,447 | — | 2,549 | — |
| 1993 | 59,125 | — | 3,553 | — |
| 1994 | 52,749 | — | 4,042 | — |
| 1995 | 51,585 | — | 3,545 | — |
| 1996 | 51,292 | — | 3,328 | 371 |
| 1997 | 52,463 | — | 2,983 | 435 |
| 1998 | 52,790 | — | 2,852 | 481 |
| 1999 | 53,831 | 53 | 2,654 | 491 |
| 2000 | 55,032 | 406 | 2,584 | 564 |
| 2001 | 56,118 | 581 | 2,658 | 545 |
| 2002 | 64,703 | 614 | 2,992 | 789 |
| 2003 | 73,669 | 581 | 3,366 | 809 |
| 2004 | 79,541 | 598 | 3,464 | 865 |
| 2005 | 82,584 | 623 | 3,512 | 852 |
| 2006 | 83,370 | 623 | 3,330 | 1,215 |
| 2007 | 88,160 | 772 | 3,304 | 1,117 |
| 2008 | 88,226 | 1,005 | 2,824 | 1,182 |
| 2009 | 89,597 | 1,006 | 3,362 | 1,205 |
| 2010 | 88,133 | 1,399 | 3,270 | 1,339 |
| 2011 | 81,742 | 1,295 | 3,044 | 1,224 |
| 2012 | 76,948 | 1,342 | 2,967 | 1,202 |
| 2013 | 66,712 | 1,248 | 2,878 | 1,151 |
| 2014 | 65,045 | 1,753 | 2,822 | 1,139 |
| 2015 | 65,170 | 1,727 | 2,965 | 1,082 |
| 2016 | 70,633 | 2,121 | 2,868 | 978 |
| 2017 | 73,193 | 2,056 | 2,825 | 890 |
| 2018 | 85,712 | 1,959 | 2,950 | 1,015 |
| 2019 | 91,217 | 2,186 | 3,248 | 947 |
| 2020 | 97,285 | 3,353 | 3,273 | 1,065 |
| 2021 | 82,777 | 2,052 | 3,002 | — |
| 2022 | 111,336 | 2,157 | 3,169 | 860 |
| 2023 | 98,856 | 2,427 | 3,221 | 1,003 |
| 2024 | 101,059 | 2,246 | 3,426 | 214 |
| 2025 | 108,031 | 1,297 | 3,171 | 918 |
| 2026est. | 107,993 | 801 | 3,492 | 910 |
Basic, applied, or development?
Basic research asks how the world works, applied research aims at a specific problem, and development turns knowledge into working systems. This split covers Department of Defense, from 2000 — the first year all three categories are reported.
Defense R&D is overwhelmingly development — building and testing systems — not basic science.
Research and development at Department of Defense, split by character of work.
See the numbers behind this chart
| Fiscal year | Basic research | Applied research | Development |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 1,565 | 5,101 | 48,233 |
| 2001 | 1,731 | 5,521 | 50,190 |
| 2002 | 1,787 | 5,995 | 57,955 |
| 2003 | 1,778 | 6,139 | 69,043 |
| 2004 | 1,722 | 6,129 | 75,701 |
| 2005 | 1,827 | 6,534 | 77,937 |
| 2006 | 1,737 | 6,572 | 80,031 |
| 2007 | 1,768 | 6,707 | 83,091 |
| 2008 | 1,807 | 6,531 | 83,647 |
| 2009 | 1,966 | 6,598 | 82,826 |
| 2010 | 2,024 | 7,559 | 82,782 |
| 2011 | 2,052 | 6,479 | 77,246 |
| 2012 | 2,158 | 6,886 | 71,995 |
| 2013 | 2,005 | 6,250 | 61,818 |
| 2014 | 2,179 | 7,165 | 59,287 |
| 2015 | 2,269 | 7,068 | 58,953 |
| 2016 | 2,268 | 7,862 | 64,920 |
| 2017 | 2,204 | 7,817 | 40,886 |
| 2018 | 2,221 | 8,297 | 49,870 |
| 2019 | 2,383 | 8,541 | 51,186 |
| 2020 | 2,415 | 6,798 | 59,292 |
| 2021 | 2,329 | 6,818 | 56,935 |
| 2022 | 2,298 | 9,051 | 59,251 |
| 2023 | 2,435 | 9,930 | 66,555 |
| 2024 | 2,112 | 9,207 | 62,738 |
| 2025 | 1,949 | 7,727 | 65,043 |
| 2026est. | 1,622 | 5,660 | 60,486 |