Defense Budget and Acquisition

CSIS experts track the foremost budget issues in the defense policy sphere, exploring trends in the overall defense budget, military readiness, force structure, defense acquisition, and military compensation in a broader effort to assess the alignment of the country’s defense strategy and its resources.

Photo: SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images

Photo: SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images

How Europe Can Build Ukraine’s Future Force

As U.S. military aid to Ukraine winds down, Europe must move beyond crisis response to lead Ukraine's long-term defense—establishing strategic coherence, hedging against U.S. disengagement, defining Ukraine's future force, and securing sustainable financing.

Commentary by Astrid Chevreuil, Otto Svendsen, and Max Bergmann — February 27, 2026

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Jerry McGinn

Jerry McGinn

Director, Center for the Industrial Base and Senior Fellow, Defense and Security Department

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The Truth of the Matter

NATO’s “Brain-Dead” Summit

CSIS’s Max Bergmann, director of the CSIS Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program, joins the podcast to discuss what really happened at the NATO summit and how defense spending will impact European economies going forward.

Podcast Episode by H. Andrew Schwartz and Max Bergmann — June 30, 2025

CSIS the truth of the matter

Enabling Forward Sustainment

To reduce the risks relating to contested logistics in the Indo-Pacific, the U.S. Air Force should consider deepening maintenance and repair cooperation with Japan—leveraging its industrial strength to build a more resilient, forward-positioned sustainment capability.

Report by Cynthia R. Cook, Nicholas Szechenyi, Henry H. Carroll, Audrey Aldisert, Sarah Hendrick, and Javier Nater — June 26, 2025

Strengthening NATO Starts with Fixing Its Industrial Base

The transatlantic defense industrial base has long been fragmented and inflexible. The NATO summit presents an opportunity to address key factors that keep arms sales, technology transfer, and defense industrial cooperation ill-suited to meet current security demands.

Commentary by Audrey Aldisert — June 24, 2025

Building a Brain of the Army Through Professional Military Education

The Army’s next revolution won’t just be fought on battlefields—it’ll be trained in classrooms. In this piece, Ben Jensen highlights how professional military education can build an AI-powered ‘brain of the Army’ ready for 2040 and beyond.

Commentary by Benjamin Jensen — June 10, 2025

How Ukraine’s Operation “Spider’s Web” Redefines Asymmetric Warfare

Kateryna Bondar unpacks Operation “Spider's Web”—a groundbreaking drone offensive that blends low-cost technology, precision targeting, and strategic planning to expose the vulnerabilities of powerful militaries and redefine the future of strategic warfare.

Critical Questions by Kateryna Bondar — June 2, 2025

The Cost of Deterrence

Please join the CSIS Defense and Security Department for a conversation on the future of U.S. defense spending and the cost of American military power, featuring CSIS experts Dr. Tom Karako, Dr. Heather Williams, and Kari A. Bingen. 

Event — May 6, 2025

Operational Fires in the Age of Punishment

Russia’s decoupling of firepower from maneuver in Ukraine signals a dangerous shift toward punitive, algorithmic warfare—forcing NATO to rethink doctrine, deterrence, and the role of human-machine integration in future conflicts.

Report by Benjamin Jensen and Jose M. Macias III — May 6, 2025