US Defense Spending
The enacted National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2026 authorises $900.6 billion for defence, nuclear security programmes and related national security activities — the largest such budget in the world. Three different figures circulate for the same year and all are defensible: the $900.6 billion authorisation used here, the $838.7 billion provided by the FY2026 defence appropriations act, and roughly $1.045 trillion of total national defence discretionary spending once funds from the FY2025 reconciliation act committed for obligation in FY2026 are included. Which one a comparison uses changes the answer materially.
Since January 1st
Year progress
68.9% of the year
Reading US Defense Spending as a spending counter
MoneyPerSecond Editorial·Data last reviewed: August 26, 2026
Congress authorizes defense policy through the annual National Defense Authorization Act, but a separate appropriations bill is what actually releases funds—two votes often conflated in headlines despite sitting in different stages of the legislative process. The roughly $886 billion figure is the Pentagon's base budget (personnel, operations and maintenance, procurement, research and development); it excludes veterans' benefits (Department of Veterans Affairs), nuclear warhead production (Department of Energy's NNSA), and portions of intelligence and space spending kept separate from the public DoD topline.
Continuing resolutions—stopgap funding measures used when Congress misses its budget deadline—can freeze spending at prior-year levels and delay new program starts, while supplemental requests tied to Ukraine, Taiwan, or Middle East contingencies move outside the normal annual cycle entirely. Shipbuilding and aircraft contracts are especially sensitive to inflation, since multi-year procurement locked in at older price assumptions can force cost overruns that show up as later budget increases rather than in the year the program was approved.
The US figure is frequently cited as exceeding the combined defense budgets of the next several highest-spending countries, but that comparison is made in nominal dollars and does not adjust for purchasing power; an all-volunteer force with comparatively high military pay also means personnel costs consume a larger share of the US total than in conscript-based militaries elsewhere, which changes how much “buying power” the same dollar figure represents.
For verification, the Congressional Budget Office and the DoD Comptroller's annual budget materials (“Green Book”) break the total down by appropriations title in far more detail than any single headline number can. See our Global Military Spending page for how the US total compares to the roughly $2.24 trillion SIPRI estimate for world military spending overall, where the US alone accounts for a large share.
Time Breakdown
$28,557.84
per second
$1,713,470.32
per minute
$102,808,219.18
per hour
$2.47B
per day
$900.6B
per year
How is this calculated?
// Annual amount
$900.6B
÷ 31,536,000 seconds/year
// Per second
= $28,557.84/sec
The counter starts from January 1st of the current year and accumulates at a rate of $28,557.84 every second, based on US Defense Spending's estimated annual figure of $900.6B.
Methodology
The annual figure is the $900.6 billion authorised by the enacted FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act. Authorisation is not the same as appropriation or as outlay: the FY2026 appropriations act provided $838.7 billion, and total national defence discretionary spending is roughly $1.045 trillion once reconciliation funds are counted. The per-second rate divides the annual figure by 31,536,000; real obligations are heavily back-loaded within the fiscal year.
While you were here
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While You Were on This Page
Data Sources
FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act (enacted) and FY2026 defence appropriations act; CRS summaries
https://www.defense.gov/Budget/Cited figure
U.S. Congress, FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act, as enacted (2026): $900.6 billion for Fiscal year 2026, as reported by the publisher. Retrieved 8 September 2026.
https://www.defense.gov/Budget/Disclaimer
Budget figures are based on approved annual allocations. Actual spending may include supplemental appropriations.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the US spend on defense per second?
The FY2026 authorisation of $900.6 billion works out to approximately $28,559 per second, or about $2.47 billion per day, spread evenly across the year. Actual outlays do not follow that pace: obligations cluster toward the end of the fiscal year.
What does the US defense budget cover?
The defense budget covers military personnel salaries, operations and maintenance, procurement of weapons systems, research and development, military construction, and family housing.