MQ-9 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

SOCOMProcurementPartial Reconciliation1108MQ9

What it is

MQ-9 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (1108MQ9) is a SOCOM procurement line funded in the Procurement, Defense-Wide account.

What changed

+$11.3M FY25→26 P-1 TOA · PB2026

Who gets it

No award linkage at high confidence.

Budget Figures

FY24 Actuals

$17.7MP-1 TOA · PB2026

FY25 Enacted

$13.5MP-1 TOA · PB2026

FY26 Request

$24.9MP-1 TOA · PB2026

48.2% reconciliation

$12.9M discretionary + $12.0M one-time reconciliation. Discretionary change vs FY2025 enacted: -4.8%.

FY25→26 Change

+$11.3MP-1 TOA · PB2026

Two official figures, one label— reconciled below

Fiscal Receipts uses P-1/R-1 workbook total obligation authority (TOA) as the headline figure sitewide. The workbook TOA includes budget rows (such as advance procurement) that the R-2/P-40 J-book program line excludes. How the two bases relate →

FY26 Request · $24.9M TOA − $12.9M J-book line = 12.0M (24.9 − 12.9 = 12.0)

Figures in the sentence are rounded for reading; the parenthesised arithmetic is the same subtraction in USD millions, at the precision where it closes.

FY2026 award data is a partial year — USASpending awards are reported on a rolling basis and the fiscal year does not close until September 30. why partial FY2026 data? →

Budget Trajectory

The program's 3 summary figures for FY24 to FY26, plotted in fiscal-year order so the direction of travel is readable at a glance: this line ends higher than it starts. The points are the summary cards above, not a separate derivation; the table beside the chart carries each figure with its own citation.

Budget trajectory: one row per fiscal year, carrying the summary figure the sparkline plots. Every figure opens its own citation.
Fiscal year	Amount
FY24	$17.7M
FY25	$13.5M
FY26	$24.9M

All series figures: P-1 TOA · PB2026

Decade view — P-1/R-1 workbook TOA basis, shown compact in $B/$M (the workbook records USD thousands); each figure cites its own President's Budget edition

5 fiscal years of this program as published (FY2022–FY2026): a line through the actuals (filled dots), with the enacted (hollow circles) and request (diamonds) markers each edition reported. Read it for direction, not for precision — this program's actuals line rises across the span. The grid below is the same data as text, one cited figure per cell.

The vertical scale does not start at zero: the baseline sits just below this program’s smallest year, so a low point on this line is not a small amount. Read the shape for direction and the grid below for the figures.

● actuals (line) · ○ enacted · ◇ request — gaps are editions the program is absent from, never interpolated.

Decade series values by fiscal year and President's Budget edition: one row per series (actuals, enacted, request), one column per fiscal year. Every figure opens its own citation.
Series	FY22	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26
Actuals	$8.02M	$14.0M	$17.7M
Enacted	–	$14.0M	$17.7M	$13.5M
Request	–	–	$17.7M	$19.1M	$24.9M

blank = series not published for this year; – = absent from that edition.

Program Lineage

No predecessor/successor lineage was recorded for this program element — no FY-to-FY transfer into or out of this line was stated in the ingested J-books, and none was inferred from the program structure.

Description

Description — MQ-9 UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE

The MQ-9 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Line Item funds the acquisition and rapid fielding of Special Operations-peculiar (SO-p) mission kits, payloads, weaponization, modifications, production support for MQ-9 UAVs, Ground Control Stations (GCSs), and training systems. The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) is designated the Department of Defense lead for planning, synchronizing, and as directed, executing global operations against terrorist networks. As the Combatant Command executing these operations, the USSOCOM requires the capability to find, fix, finish, exploit, and analyze time sensitive high-value targets. These targets can often only be identified with patient collection of information and require rapid, decisive action during the short periods in which they present themselves. This Line Item addresses the primary areas of Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR), target acquisition, and strike. The Adaptive Airborne Enterprise (A2E) capability funds the acquisition and rapid fielding of SO-p capabilities for the MQ-9 UAV to use in collaboration environments to facilitate a more efficient and expeditious integration to operate in against near-peer and peer adversaries in contested or denied and highly congested environments. The USSOCOM is shifting from multiple operators controlling a single MQ-9 to human-machine teams commanding a family of uncrewed and optionally-crewed systems. The USSOCOM requires the capability to advance unmanned systems from a single operational domain and hierarchical command and control system to a multi-domain, agile, small footprint, mesh-network command and control ecosystem. A2E is a platform-agnostic, modular weapon system designed for integration and interoperability with various crewed and uncrewed platforms. This adaptable system leverages SOF access and placement to enable sensing, non-kinetic effects, and strike in contested/denied environments. A2E leverages current MQ-9A availability with small UAS (sUAS) to close mission gaps in contested and denied environments by fielding integrated capability increments to provide increased mission support to the warfighter.

Justification

Justification — MQ-9 UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE

The FY 2026 request for MQ-9 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle includes $12.890 million of discretionary and $11.990 million of mandatory (reconciliation) for a total of $24.880 million. The mandatory funds procure mission kits, mission payloads, weaponization and modifications. Further information for this reconciliation request is provided in Section 20010 (Readiness) of the Reconciliation Exhibit. The following justifications reflect the sum totals of mandatory (reconciliation) and discretionary categories of funding. FY 2026 BASE PROGRAM JUSTIFICATION: Leverages other service and activity to fielded capabilities to rapidly procure SO-p mission kits, mission payloads, weaponization, modifications, production support, and for Adaptive Airborne Enterprise to accelerate integration on MQ-9, Ground Control Stations, and training systems. FY 2025 to FY 2026 overall decrease of $0.653 million includes: $6.363 million decrease in mission kits, payloads, weaponization and modifications as these funds are being requested and included in the overall mandatory (reconciliation) amount of $11.990 million; $5.833 million increase in Adaptive Airborne Enterprise (A2E) procures 24 Group 2 ISR Air Launched Effects (ALE) sUAS units and five Group 2 munition variant sUAS and also supports increases in engineering and program management support to execute the integration of the Group 2 small UAS systems onto the MQ-9 and A2E; and a $0.123 mission decrease in production support.

Budget Line Items(workbook-cited)

P-1/R-1 workbook Total Obligation Authority basis (USD thousands) · PB2026.

Exhibit P-1

Account	Org	Type	Amount
Procurement, Defense-Wide	SOCOM	FY24 Actuals	$17.7M
Procurement, Defense-Wide	SOCOM	FY25 Enacted	$13.5M
Procurement, Defense-Wide	SOCOM	FY26 Disc. Request	$12.9M
Procurement, Defense-Wide	SOCOM	FY26 Reconciliation	$12.0M
Procurement, Defense-Wide	SOCOM	FY26 Total	$24.9M

Budget Details(R-2/P-40 facts)

J-book detail basis (R-2/P-40, USD millions) · PB2026 — a different accounting basis from the P-1/R-1 workbook TOA above; where the two disagree, the reconciliation strip under Budget Figures shows both.

Wider than this screen — swipe the table sideways for the remaining fiscal-year columns.

Project	All Prior Years	FY24 Actuals	FY25 Total	FY26 Base	FY26 Request
Program Element	$330.1M	$17.7M	$13.5M	$12.9M	$12.9M

No follow-the-dollar view — this program's awards haven't been crosswalked at high confidence (flows cover 17 of 1,741 programs). why coverage is partial? →

Awards

No awards are linked to this program element at high confidence — the budget→award crosswalk only asserts links it can defend, and this line has none yet.

Lobbying Mentions

Showing 25 of 58 from the Senate LDA disclosure database.

BAE SYSTEMS INCUnmanned|Vehicle2026matched 2+ title words

National Defense Authorization Act, 2027 (HR XXXX/S XXXX); provisions regarding R&D - Navy, US Marine Corps, Air…