Pentagon backs $1.5T budget, elevates cyber against China, Russia

Senior Defense Department officials endorsed the White House’s roughly $1.5 trillion fiscal 2027 defense request in testimony Tuesday before the House Armed Services Committee’s cyber subcommittee in Washington, underscoring $20.5 billion for cyberspace activities amid growing threats from China and Russia.

Katherine Sutton, the Pentagon’s top cyber policy official, described a “rapidly changing” threat environment and told lawmakers that adversaries have “moved beyond theft and are pre-positioning disruptive capabilities.”

Army Gen. Joshua Rudd, who heads U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, reported that Cyber Command operations increased about 25% over the prior year and are on track to grow again. He noted active support to combatant commands and joint work with the NSA to deliver real-time cyber effects in conflict scenarios.

The administration’s plan includes $20.5 billion for cyberspace activities to defend military networks, disrupt foreign actors, and speed the Pentagon’s transition to a zero trust security model. The request also aims to strengthen protections for critical infrastructure and companies in the defense industrial base.

The fiscal 2027 budget frames cyber as a core enabler across all warfighting domains. It outlines $58.5 billion for artificial intelligence and joint command-and-control initiatives, along with additional funding for autonomous systems and tools that support digital and information warfare.

Lawmakers questioned whether these investments keep pace with China and Russia. Sutton characterized the fiscal 2027 request as a substantial increase across multiple mission areas but stressed that capability depends on people and process. She called for “the right balance of growing and training the workforce while also leveraging technology,” pointing to artificial intelligence as a potential force multiplier.

Rudd highlighted a restructuring announced in November known as “CyberCom 2.0,” intended to improve readiness and performance across cyber mission teams. The overhaul creates clearer career paths, enables greater specialization, and tightens coordination between Cyber Command and the military services. Advanced training responsibilities are increasingly centralized within Cyber Command “to ensure consistency and operational alignment,” he noted, and new training pipelines are producing early results.

Members raised concerns about overlapping responsibilities for network defense across multiple offices. In response, Sutton described a push for a more integrated approach and urged leaders to “focus less on silos” by linking operational insights on adversaries with cybersecurity practices across the enterprise.

Recruiting and retention remained a central theme. Lawmakers noted that private-sector pay often exceeds government compensation for cyber roles. Rudd estimated that roughly 80% to 90% of the U.S. cyber mission workforce are uniformed personnel, and he outlined efforts to expand civilian hiring and deepen partnerships with industry and academia.

Officials described combined investments in cyber, AI, and command-and-control as reflecting how adversaries blend digital operations with kinetic and information warfare. The defense-focused increase stands in contrast to reductions the administration proposed for many civilian cyber programs in 2027, a difference that drew scrutiny from lawmakers.