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New aircraft and vehicles for the National Guard not included in the original budget request were in the fiscal 2026 defense appropriations President Donald Trump signed Feb. 3.
They include six C-130J Hercules cargo planes and an LC-130J for the Air Guard and eight MQ-1C Gray Eagle 25M drones along with modern Humvees for the Army Guard.
Congress added the equipment to the president’s budget proposal at the behest of NGAUS.
The six Lockheed Martin-built cargo planes increased to more than 70 the number of C-130Js lawmakers have added to defense appropriations for the Guard in recent years. The Air Force has never requested a C-130J for the Guard in its budget requests.
The LC-130J is a modern version of the ski-equipped C-130s the New York Air Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing uses for missions to Antarctica and Greenland in support of the National Science Foundation.
Air Guard C-130 modernization is a NGAUS legislative priority.
Built by General Atomics, the Gray Eagle is an unmanned aircraft system that provides Army division commanders with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, enabling them to rapidly pinpoint artillery.
Each active-component division has eight Gray Eagles. This is the Army Guard’s second appropriation of eight. The first was in fiscal 2023 defense appropriations.
Fiscal 2026 defense appropriations also included $100 million for the ARNG Humvee Modernization Program.
Congress provided at least $100 million for 12 consecutive years ($140 million in fiscal 2024) to rebuild or replace legacy Humvees, which are manufactured by AM General. Fiscal 2025 defense appropriations, which were part of a stopgap budget, included $90 million.
More than 4,500 “recapitalized” Humvees are now in the Guard.
Gray Eagle procurement and Humvee modernization for the Army Guard are NGAUS legislative priorities.
Lawmakers also included $800 million ($250 million for the Army Guard and $235 million for the Air Guard) in the congressionally directed National Guard and Reserve Equipment Account. NGREA is always budgeted at $0 in the president’s budget proposal.
In addition, they added $195 million to the request for the Guard Counterdrug Program, which provides personnel and equipment to support state and local police efforts nationwide to combat the distribution of illegal drugs.
The president signed the fiscal 2026 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill in November.
It included $272.9 million for Army Guard MILCON projects, which is $121.1 million above the president’s budget, and $292.5 million for the Air Guard, which is $103.9 million above the president’s request.
The Army Guard construction projects are in Connecticut, Delaware, Guam, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
The funded Air Guard projects are in Alaska, Delaware, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and West Virginia.
—By John Goheen
