US military pushes for boost in 2027 spending on drones and air defenses used in Iran war

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. military officials on Tuesday called for spending tens of billions of dollars in the next budget year on drones, air defense systems and fighter jets that have been a key part of fighting the Iran war.

As part of President Donald Trump’s push to boost defense spending to $1.5 trillion in the 2027 budget, the Pentagon wants to triple spending on drones and related technology to more than $74 billion and invest over $30 billion into more critical munitions, including missile interceptors, whose stockpiles have become critically low during the Iran war.

Military officials said the spending blueprint was developed before the conflict in the Middle East. They also did not discuss how much they will request in additional funds for the war, which would be on top of what the White House is seeking to boost defense spending in the next budget year.

“The overlap, you’ll see, is the request for munitions, which is something we always need," Jules Hurst III, acting undersecretary of defense and the Pentagon's comptroller, told reporters at a briefing. "We always need to increase our magazine depth. But outside of that, there aren’t any operational costs in here from Iran.”

The missile interceptors whose numbers are under the most strain are the Patriot and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, air defense systems. The THAAD system is designed for defeating medium-range ballistic missiles, while the Patriot system is for taking down short-range ballistic missiles and crewed aircraft. However, they both also were used to shoot down cheap Iranian drones.

The $30 billion budget item also would aim to purchase long-range Precision Strike Missiles and Mid-Range Capability missile systems used by the U.S. Army.

The budget proposal would allocate nearly $54 billion for military drones and related technology, as well as $21 billion for weapons systems designed to take down enemy drones.

Drones and other unmanned vehicles have emerged as a key weapon in the wars in Ukraine and Iran, and top Pentagon officials say the U.S. must significantly increase its funding of both drones and counter-drone systems.

“Drone warfare is rapidly reshaping the modern battlefield,” Hurst said. “This budget is the largest investment in drone warfare and counter drone technology in U.S. history.”

As part of the 2027 budget, the Pentagon also intends to grow the military by 44,500 troops, or more than 2%, spend more than $2 billion on operations on the U.S.-Mexico border and make the largest shipbuilding request since 1962.

While officials said the budget was developed before operations began in Iran, it featured major jumps in many of the missiles that have been used in the conflict. One of the most dramatic increases was in the choice for the Navy to increase of its purchase of the Tomahawk cruise missile from 55 missiles last year to 785 in this year’s budget.

The long-range cruise missile was heavily used in Iran and led to concerns from experts that the military was using it much faster than it could replenish its stocks.

Vice Adm. Ben Reynolds, the Navy’s budget boss, wouldn’t say if he expected all 785 Tomahawk missiles to be delivered within the year. He acknowledged that weapons production capacity “is absolutely the challenge” and, in the case of the Tomahawk, he said the Navy expects Raytheon — the company that makes it — “to invest very heavily now to be able to ramp up production.”

The services also are addressing the difficulty in producing the advanced munitions favored by the military by slowly shifting toward more basic weapons.

Major Gen. Frank Verdugo, the Air Force’s budget chief, said the Air Force wants to invest $600 million to develop “affordable” munitions as part of an effort to move away from “small numbers of exquisite weapons toward a future where we can overwhelm an adversary with sheer volume.”

The Navy said it would be buying 18 more warships using more than $65 billion — a 46% increase from the previous year.

However, the Trump-endorsed battleship that was announced to great fanfare last year is not in this year’s budget, according to the briefing. Instead, the Navy is planning to pay for the first battleship in next year’s budget.

The military's spending proposal also lacked money for repairing U.S. bases in the Middle East, which Hurst said would be part of a future request.

“Part of it is we would assess what our posture should be in the Middle East,” Hurst told reporters. “We have to make sure we understand what we want to construct in the future. We might change how we build bases in the Middle East based on this conflict.”

If approved by Congress, the budget would provide the largest level of defense funding in inflation-adjusted dollars in U.S. history, said Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

Harrison said the spending appears more aligned with former President Joe Biden’s national defense strategy than Trump’s.

“This is a budget that is trying to build a force capable of sustaining U.S. presence and security commitments around the world — a force that’s capable of fighting major wars against countries like Russia and China,” Harrison said.

The Trump administration’s strategy document put the priority on homeland defense and was largely silent on Russia and did not say much about China, Harrison said.

Director of Force Structure, Resources and Assessment of the Joint Chief of Staff Space Force Lt. Gen. Steven Whitney, right, and Acting Under Secretary of Defense and Comptroller, Jules Hurst III, talk with members of the media during a briefing on the Department of Defense's FY27 Budget Request at the Pentagon, Tuesday, April 21, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management and Comptroller Maj. Gen. Frank Verdugo talks to reporters during a briefing on the Air Force's FY27 budget request in the Pentagon, Tuesday, April 21, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Budget/Director, Fiscal Management Division, Rear Adm. Ben Reynolds talks to reporters during a briefing on the Navy's FY27 budget at the Pentagon, Tuesday, April 21, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

Acting Under Secretary of Defense and Comptroller, Jules Hurst III, left, and Director of Force Structure, Resources and Assessment of the Joint Chief of Staff Space Force Lt. Gen. Steven Whitney, talk with members of the media during a briefing on the Department of Defense's FY27 Budget Request at the Pentagon, Tuesday, April 21, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

MADRID (AP) — Cristiano Ronaldo’s sixth and likely final World Cup will be the first for the Portugal great since he left Europe to play in Saudi Arabia.

The surprise move in late 2022 shocked many in the soccer world and prompted widespread doubts about whether his form would be affected by facing lower-level competition.

But Ronaldo, who turned 41 in February, has dismissed any notion of a drop in performance going into next month’s showcase event. And, to help make his case, the goals have kept coming, both for Al Nassr and with Portugal.

Portugal coach Roberto Martínez said Ronaldo is as hungry as ever and doesn’t see any signs that the star forward has slowed down after moving to Saudi Arabia.

“He keeps performing and he keeps showing his value and he keeps showing that (he) is important for the national team,” Martínez said. “To have that hunger when you’ve won everything in the game is quite remarkable. And that’s without getting away from the fact that to be in the national team you need to be somebody that can help the team now and not with what you’ve done in the past.”

Ronaldo and his longtime rival Lionel Messi are set to reach the milestone of playing in six World Cups. Ronaldo is the all-time leader in appearances (226) and goals (143) for a men's national team. He is also the only man to have scored in five World Cups.

“Even though he’s the captain, even though probably he’s achieved what no other player in world football has achieved, which is the number of games for the national team, over 225 appearances, just with that number is a uniqueness about what he brings, but I think he has the same demands as any other player in the national team,” Martínez said.

Ronaldo made the move to Saudi Arabia in the middle of the 2022-23 season after his latest stint with Manchester United, rejecting other offers to take up a reported salary of $200 million a year and “give a different vision of this country and football.” Ronaldo said at the time his work in Europe was done and he was ready for a “new challenge.”

Criticism immediately began to pour in, with many fans and pundits not liking what appeared to be his choice of taking the big Saudi money instead of continuing his career in elite soccer. Some said he was virtually retiring from competitive soccer.

Ronaldo has constantly praised the Saudi league, though, saying it’s better than both the French and the Portuguese leagues. He said those who criticize him should go there and try to compete in temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) and keep performing like he has.

“I don’t need to speak because they can say whatever they want, but the numbers don’t lie,” Ronaldo said in an interview with Piers Morgan last year. “They've never been here, they've never played here ... For me it’s (easier) to score in Spain than score in Saudi (league).”

Ronaldo’s move away from Europe did not appear to affect his performances on the international stage with Portugal. He has kept playing at a high level since then, scoring 25 goals in his last 30 games with the national team.

Ronaldo went scoreless in five European Championship games in 2024 as Portugal reached the quarterfinals. In 2025, about two and a half years after he started playing in Saudi Arabia, Ronaldo helped Portugal win the Nations League title, with one of his eight goals in the competition coming in the final against Spain.

Ronaldo has maintained a top-notch physical condition despite just having turned 41. He was hindered by a hamstring injury sustained in late February but recovered quickly. On May 7, he was scoring his 100th Saudi Pro League goal in his 105th league appearances for Al Nassr, which has a chance to win its first league title since 2019.

“All the efforts (Cristiano) makes and what he does on the pitch, which he has experienced more than all of us together, which he puts in every day and every game, is unique,” João Félix, Ronaldo’s teammate with both Al Nassr and Portugal, told the Saudi Pro League earlier this year. “And that we see him, at 40 years old, doing what he does, only gives us more motivation.”

Ronaldo scored 14 goals in 16 matches in his debut season in Saudi Arabia in 2022-23. In his first full season, he netted 35 goals in 31 games, setting a new scoring record in the league. Al Nassr won its first Arab Club Champions Cup in 2023 thanks to a pair of goals by Ronaldo in the final.

In the 2024-25 season, Ronaldo scored 25 goals in 30 matches, and so far this season he has found the net 26 times in 29 appearances. He was the league’s top scorer in both of his first two full seasons, and now is five goals shy of Al Ahli’s Ivan Toney.

Ronaldo has said this will definitely be his last attempt at winning the World Cup, but it remains unclear for how long he will continue playing.

His coach with Portugal knows better not to make any guesses.

“It’s difficult for me to say, because obviously I’ve learned very quickly not to predict the future with Cristiano, just because he’s got this elite brain about being the best that he can be today,” Martínez said. “And I’m thinking if you ask him, he’ll tell you the same. He doesn’t make plans.”

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FILE - Al Nassr's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring at the King Saud University Stadium, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, file)

FILE - Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring during a World Cup 2026 group F qualifying soccer match between Portugal and Hungary in Lisbon, Oct. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca, File)