Sticker Shock And Awe: The Pentagon’s New Missile Budget Plans

BusinessAerospace & DefenseSticker Shock And Awe: The Pentagon’s New Missile Budget PlansByDavid Hambling,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I'm a South London-based technology journalist, consultant and authorFollow AuthorJun 05, 2026, 09:16am EDTThe Patriot missile, capable of shooting down ballistic missiles as well as aircraft and drones is a major feature in the Army's missile budget.Corbis via Getty ImagesDefense budgets tend to be a mystery to outsiders. People know what reasonable price is for a car, a laptop or a fridge, but military hardware is another world. Figures with a lot of zeroes are tossed around, billions are spent, and so long as U.S. military continues to be the most powerful in the world, nobody questions it. But the conflict in Ukraine, where low-cost drones have dominated over legacy systems has raised awareness that exquisite, state-of-the-art hardware may not be enough. This sense was sharpened when round half of the entire US stockpile of multimillion-dollar Patriot missiles was expended against barrages of cheap Iranian Shahed drones from Iran.In response the Pentagon has launched initiatives including the LUCAS budget attack drone and the Drone Dominance Gauntlet to acquire affordable FPVs. Is procurement moving to a more efficient lix of high and low-cost weapons? Shopping List: Javelin, Stinger And More Many items have not changed much in the Army’s missile budget. The Javelin shoulder-launched anti-tank missile, $236k per shot last year, is now down to $202k. However, the order is only for 645 missiles for the entire Army, so these may not go far. Some 10,000 Javelins were shipped to Ukraine, but these are not much seen now and the biggest tank killers are $500 FPVs. Ukrainian counter-drone team with Stinger missile in Ukraine 2024Getty ImagesMORE FOR YOUAnother U.S. weapon fielded in Ukraine is the Stinger shoulder-launch surface-to-air missile, used against Russian...