Pegasus Charge

Pegasus Charge is one of two new autonomous-systems umbrella programmes that appeared in the Pentagon's FY2027 budget request for the first time, announced on 21 April 2026. The programme is listed under the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group (DAWG) budget consolidation at an unspecified line-item level and has no publicly disclosed technical specifications, named prime contractors, or performance requirements. Its name and appropriations line are the full extent of publicly available information as of April 2026.

The FY2027 request that introduced Pegasus Charge lifted the DAWG total to $54.6 billion, a 24,100% single-cycle increase. Because Pegasus Charge and its companion programme Ironhorse Rebirth are new entries, congressional appropriators have no prior-year baseline against which to evaluate the request. The House Armed Services Committee and Senate Armed Services Committee are expected to demand technical justification during markup hearings in May to July 2026, the first opportunity for programme offices to provide public line-item detail.

The absence of technical specifications follows a pattern visible across high-priority US autonomous-systems awards, where Other Transaction Authority pools and classified annexes precede public programme descriptions. Whether Pegasus Charge covers a specific platform class (loitering munitions, Collaborative Combat Aircraft, counter-drone) or a cross-domain integration layer is not publicly known. Its significance sits in the budget line itself: it is one mechanism through which the DAWG $54.6 billion could be appropriated and disbursed.