Future Years Defense Program
US Defense Department five-year spending projection
The Future Years Defense Program is the Pentagon's rolling five-year spending plan, sent to Congress with every budget and revised every year; it binds no money, which is the test Taiwan's six-year drone law, signed on 11 September 2026, now faces too.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026
Timeline for Future Years Defense Program
Mentioned in: Lai signs Taiwan's six-year drone law
Autonomous Systems: Land & SeaBackground
The Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) is the US Defense Department's projection of spending beyond the coming budget year. The Congressional Research Service defines it as a projection of the forces, resources and programmes that support Department of Defense operations. It covers funding and Manpower over five years and force structure over eight.
Title 10, Section 221 of the US Code requires the Secretary of Defense to submit it to Congress with the President's budget request. A 2018 amendment added an unclassified electronic version, though the detailed data remain classified. The projection binds no appropriation, and each annual budget revises it.
The FYDP shows where the Pentagon intends to spend, while Congress still votes the money one budget at a time. Multi-year defence plans elsewhere face the same annual vote: Taiwan's unmanned-vehicles Act, signed on 11 September 2026, sets NT$240bn over six years, but its NT$40bn annual baseline sits inside each year's defence budget, so lawmakers can still change it.