What the R&D budget proposal says about the future of war

If you want to understand tomorrow’s doctrine and industrial policy, zip past the $879 billion topline of the Defense Department’s 2026 budget proposal and dig into the section that details the $179 billion plan for research, development, test and evaluation. Like a predictive index for how the military intends to fight in five to 15 years, shifts in this year’s RDT&E proposal suggest the emergence of software-defined weapons, agile acquisition models, space-based