The Pentagon’s fiscal year 2026 budget request includes $13.4 billion for autonomous and remotely operated systems, but the funding is scattered across 348 individual budget lines -- illustrating both the breadth of investment and the challenge of managing a sprawling portfolio. An analysis using Real Time Defense -- a new platform that enables detailed exploration of Defense Department budgets and programs -- shows the terms “autonomy,” “autonomous,” and “remotely operated” appear in 62 procurement budget justification documents while 286 support...
