WASHINGTON — The Defense Department revealed today that its Military Intelligence Program (MIP) budget for fiscal 2026 was $30.9 billion.
The figure represents a jump of about $3 billion from FY25, but falls $2.7 billion short of its $33.6 billion request for this year.
In a brief announcement, DoD said the figure was “aligned to the National Defense Strategy,” but declined to release further details as “they remain classified for national security reasons.”
At the same time, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence revealed a National Intelligence Program (NIP) budget of $78.1 billion — nearly $5 billion more than last year but also short of the $81.9 billion the office requested for FY26.
Overseen by ODNI, the NIP funds strategic intelligence gathering for policymakers and covers the CIA, NSA and other broad-strokes intelligence-gathering organizations — including military agencies like the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, according to a 2024 congressional report [PDF].
The NIP also funds some of the most closely held operations, known as Sensitive Compartmented Information programs, “throughout the intelligence community,” according to the report.
By contrast, the MIP is overseen by the Pentagon and “funds defense intelligence activities intended to support operational and tactical level intelligence priorities supporting defense operations.” The IC’s 18 members include nine DoD “components,” such as the intelligence arms of each service, and nine non-DoD components, like the CIA, DEA, FBI and the Treasury Department’s intelligence unit.
However, the congressional report notes that the NIP and MIP do not make up the total of US spending on intelligence and don’t account for some “intelligence-gathering entities that support a department-specific mission [and] use department funds” in the sprawling national security community. Nor does the MIP cover certain intelligence-related platforms, like some drone programs, if intelligence gathering is not the system’s primary mission.
