Final FY 2026 Defense Bill Includes 19 Sullivan Provisions, Prioritizes Alaska

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), today celebrated the Senate's passage of the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The $890 billion legislation (a nearly $12 billion increase over the baseline) includes 19 provisions and amendments offered by Sen. Sullivan, strongly supports U.S. service members and their families, incorporates a vast majority of Sen. Sullivan's GOLDEN DOME missile defense legislation, and authorizes more than $292 million in military construction for Alaska. The bill now heads to the President's desk.

"My work on the Armed Services Committee in each successive national defense authorization is always guided by three overriding priorities: taking care of our troops, advancing a policy of 'Peace Through Strength,' and continuing to build up our Alaska-based military," said Sen. Sullivan. "The FY 2026 NDAA delivers on all three of these fronts and is chock full of wins for Alaska, for our military, and for our warfighters and their families. I pressed to authorize close to $300 million in military construction projects specifically for Alaska, recognizing our state's unrivaled strategic location and the escalating aggression from the Russians and Chinese in the North Pacific and Arctic. This figure is in addition to the $441 million, which Senator Murkowski helped secure, for Alaska military construction projects in the military construction appropriations bill that was passed as part of the legislation to reopen the government in November-the largest amount appropriated for our state in the last eight years.

"This year's NDAA also makes major investments in the 'Golden Dome' missile defense system, building on the $25 billion down payment in the Working Families Tax Cuts Act and incorporating a significant piece of my GOLDEN DOME Act. These provisions will undoubtedly benefit Alaska, the cornerstone of America's homeland missile defense system. I was also able to include provisions focused on a number of key priorities: securing America's critical minerals supply chains, strengthening America's defense industrial base, supporting America's allies and partners, addressing the crisis in U.S. Navy shipbuilding, and investing robustly in our warfighters and warfighting capabilities to deter our adversaries around the world. I want to commend my colleagues and President Trump for working together to produce a strong defense authorization that advances America's security interests and further recognizes and invests in Alaska's critical role in our national defense.

"In the past few months, we have made huge strides in bolstering Alaska's military and the infrastructure needed to support it in our state. Through the budget reconciliation bill signed into law in July, the appropriations bill to fund the government in November, and the NDAA and Coast Guard authorization bills we've passed today, our state will be receiving more than a billion dollars in investments. This will bolster America's national security given our state's strategic location, but it will also bolster our economy and create hundreds, if not thousands, of good-paying jobs in Alaska."

The $292 million in military construction authorizations for Alaska include:

• $82 million for the Air Force Joint Integrated Test & Training Center (JITTC) at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER).
• $80 million for an upgraded Army barracks at Fort Wainwright.
• $46 million for an Army Reserve Base Supply Complex at JBER.
• $46 million for an Army Reserve Maintenance Facility at JBER.
• $15 million for a Base Civil Engineering (BCE) Pavements and Grounds Facility for the Alaska Air National Guard at Eielson Air Force Base.
• $13.2 million for the design of an Air Force Consolidated Munitions Complex at Eielson.
• $8 million for the design of an Army dining facility at Fort Wainwright.
• $1.75 million for the design of an Air Force Coal Thaw Shed Addition at Eielson.

The FY 2026 NDAA supports U.S. service members and their families with provisions that:

• Authorize funding to support a 3.8 percent pay raise for military members-on top of the historic pay raise of 14.5 percent passed in the FY 2025 NDAA.
• Authorize an additional pay raise for service members stationed in Alaska.
• Authorize annual travel reimbursement for service members stationed in remote areas, like Alaska, to return to their home of record or another approved destination.
• Require DOD to more frequently calculate housing allowances so that they keep pace with inflation and the cost of living, and to make these reviews available to service members.
• Require DOD to provide clear, plain-language explanations of military pay tables and allowances for service members. DOD is also required to establish an ongoing financial education campaign that ensures all service members understand their compensation, benefits, and the long-term financial outlook of their military service.
• Require DOD to improve staffing of special education teachers and staff, and offerings at DOD schools.

Sen. Sullivan's Alaska-related provisions in the FY 2026 NDAA:

• Include provisions from Sen. Sullivan and Sen. Kevin Cramer's (R-N.D.) Ground and Orbital Launched Defeat of Emergent Nuclear Destruction and Other Missile Engagements (GOLDEN DOME) Act, legislation introduced in June of 2025 to develop a modernized, layered homeland missile defense system that can counter, detect, track, and defeat existing and evolving threats. The GOLDEN DOME Act supports a January 27, 2025 executive order from President Trump. The Golden Dome-related provisions:
  • Authorize multi-year procurements for 10 missiles, including historic new low-cost cruise missiles and low-cost hypersonic strike systems and unprecedented seven-year authorizations for PAC-3, THAAD, and Tomahawk.
  • Codify into law prohibiting caps for the testing of Golden Dome's kinetic and non-kinetic systems and direct the U.S. Space Force to identify alternate locations for its national launch sites, likely increasing testing activity at the Pacific Spaceport Complex - Alaska on Kodiak Island.
• Prohibit military dining facilities and commissaries from purchasing or selling seafood that originates or is processed in the People's Republic of China (PRC) to help Alaska fishermen.
• Require quarterly briefings from the Secretary of Defense on the planned expenditures of $115 million from the Working Families Tax Cuts Act meant for the exploration and development of existing Arctic infrastructure, like the former Naval Air Station at Adak.
• Direct DOD to outline long-term sustainment and modernization plans for the COBRA Dane radar system located at Eareckson Air Station, Shemya Island, Alaska, a radar critically important to U.S. missile defense and space domain awareness.
• Support the onshoring of critical mineral-based magnet processing and production for use in military equipment.
• Support DOD's effort to secure domestic and allied sources of critical minerals-many of which are found in Alaska-through modification to the Defense Industrial Base Fund in light of China's control over the production of many of these resources vital for U.S. defense technologies.

Other Sullivan priorities in the FY 2026 NDAA:

• Establish a pilot program on the use of automated shipbuilding technologies and capabilities to help alleviate workforce constraints and reduce construction times.
• Direct the Secretary of Defense to consider whether NATO partners have submitted plans to reach their commitments to spend 5 percent of GDP on defense and related security infrastructure when deciding future U.S. military basing and training in Europe.
• Establish an Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Armaments Cooperation to improve the DOD's ability to work closely with allied and partner industrial bases and conduct win-win industrial base integration efforts that will better protect the country and create jobs for Americans.
• Include provisions to get strategically important foreign purchases of American weapons systems on contract and out the door more quickly.
• Support defense acquisition reform efforts, including reforming the Joint Requirements Oversight Council that decides important requirements for the joint force each year, and requiring DOD to issue guidance that speeds up software acquisition in support of the warfighters.
• Extend several authorities contained in Senator Sullivan's US-Israel Defense Partnership to strengthen Israel's security, including for counter unmanned systems cooperation and anti-tunneling cooperation, funding for US-Israel emerging technology cooperation, and a required assessment of integrated air and missile defense architecture in the CENTCOM area of operations.
• Incorporate the Fight China Act, which prohibits U.S. investments in certain Chinese technologies, including in Artificial Intelligence (AI), quantum computers, hypersonics, and other technologies that could one day be used to kill American Marines and sailors and threaten the freedoms of Americans at home.

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