The National Nuclear Security Administration’s biggest budget request yet for fiscal 2027 would include $27.4 billion for weapons activities, according to the Department of Energy’s budget justification document released over the weekend.
That would be an increase of $7 billion, or 35%, from the fiscal 2026 enacted levels of $20.4 billion, which included the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s mandatory reconciliation funding.
According to DOE’s budget justification document, the Working Families Tax Cut Act provided $3.9 billion to be obligated toward weapons activities in fiscal 2026. The rest of the funding is “discretionary funding only,” meaning funding in the main appropriations packages instead of in a reconciliation bill.
Under weapons activities, stockpile management would get $6.5 billion, or an increase of $551 million or 9%, while production modernization would get $8.8 billion, a mammoth increase of $3.5 billion or 65%. The document says fiscal 2027 funding for production modernization “will support Plutonium Pit Production” at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Savannah River Site, while also “reestablish the nation’s capability to produce 80 pits per year.”
Notably, there is not a line item for testing nuclear weapons. There is a mention of an increase to joint test assembly design, or non-nuclear assemblies that do not produce a nuclear reaction, and production “to support extended flight testing schedules.” The latter refers to flight testing the warheads either on their delivery systems – the bomber aircraft, intercontinental ballistic missile or submarine launched ballistic missile – or a similar system.
