Overview
- The Pentagon’s FY2027 budget, released Friday, asks for about $3 billion for 785 Tomahawk cruise missiles and $4.33 billion for 540 SM-6 interceptors to rebuild stocks.
- Most of the buy would run through a reconciliation bill that spreads procurement over years, with only 58 Tomahawks and 106 SM-6s in the base request and the rest pre-funded for later delivery.
- Defense analysts warn factories cannot meet those totals right away because Tomahawks often take more than two years to build and SM-6s have 36-month production cycles.
- The push follows roughly 850 Tomahawks fired during Operation Epic Fury, which CSIS says is a record, and experts estimate replacing those rounds will likely take two to three years.
- Industry plans a ramp-up—RTX made about 100 Tomahawks in 2025 and signed a February 4 agreement to scale toward 1,000 a year—while Japan’s planned buy of about 400 missiles may face delays as U.S. stocks are refilled first.