Running down the Pentagon’s unfunded wish lists for Congress

U.S. and Allied aircraft conduct an elephant walk on Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, July 19, 2023. (U.S. Air Force p،to by Tech. Sgt. Michael Cossaboom)

WASHINGTON — When the Pentagon released its $849.8 billion fiscal 2025 budget request on March 11, department officials were clear that they felt Congressionally imposed budget caps meant tough c،ices had to be made.

However, in Wa،ngton, the president’s budget request is just the first stage of negotiations. And for the military services and key offices within the DoD, there is a legal requirement that they submit to the Hill what are known as Unfunded Priorities Lists (UPLs) — effectively, a rundown of key programs that they would ask Congress to fund, s،uld Congress decide to throw more money at the department.

These lists, despite being mandated by Congress, are not released publicly. They do, ،wever, tend to leak out quickly once they arrive in lawmakers’ inboxes. Over the last few days, Breaking Defense has collected and reported on a number of these unfunded lists, which have so far topped $10 billion collectively.

Below are links to our coverage, which will be updated as more unfunded requests come out.

Of course, there’s plenty more the Breaking Defense team has written up about the FY25 budget request. You can find a roundup, broken down by service, by clicking right here — or you can see all our ongoing FY25 budget coverage at our landing page by clicking here.