On Dec. 18, President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026, authorizing approximately $900 billion in spending. The expansive bill covers many topics, including lifting sanctions on Syria, approving important but relatively small amounts of funding to help Ukraine, reforming defense acquisition, and directing policy on a wide range of military issues. We asked four experts to identify and assess a key measure in the act and its implications for U.S. defense and national security.Read more below.Matt Vallone President of Next Frontier IntelligenceThe NDAA flips multi-year procurement from exception to default — a change that should benefit both the Department of Defense and industry, albeit at the risk of creating friction with appropriators. Section 804 directs that the department “shall submit to Congress a request for … multiyear contracts for the procurement of a covered system” when two conditions are met: The system has reached full-rate production and the department plans to procure it at full-rate for at least five years.While it is possible that appropriations committees — ever vigilant of opportunities to direct funding — may try to restrict or limit this authority in future years, this should allow the department to provide industry with funding certainty and predictability, giving industry partners further incentives for gaining efficiencies. There’s no reason the department should not be able to engage in longer-term contracts for full-rate production programs, and this reform should help make that more common.Steven Wills Navalist for the Center for Maritime Strategy Editor of Returning from Ebb Tide, Renewing the United States Commercial Maritime EnterpriseThis year’s NDAA supports Navy shipbuilding efforts but should have included a call to fix the small combatant program in the wake of concerns about the Littoral Combat Ship and the canceled Constellation-class frigate program. The secretary of the Navy
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On Dec. 18, President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026, authorizing approximately $900 billion in spending. The expansive bill covers many topics, including lifting sanctions on Syria, approving important but relatively small amounts of funding to help Ukraine, reforming defense acquisition, and directing policy on a wide range of military issues. We asked four experts to identify and assess a key measure in the act and its implications for U.S. defense and national security.Read more below.Matt Vallone President of Next Frontier IntelligenceThe NDAA flips multi-year procurement from exception to default — a change
