This Thursday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on unfunded priorities, the Pentagon's reconciliation funding plans and much more.

Inside Defense obtained copies of the Army and Navy's fiscal year 2027 unfunded priorities lists:

Army UPL includes $731M for nine MILCON projects

The Army has submitted its unfunded priorities list to Congress for fiscal year 2027, which includes $731 million for nine military construction projects, according to a copy of the list obtained by Inside Defense.

Navy sends slim $602 million UPL to hill

The Navy has submitted its fiscal year 2027 unfunded priorities list to lawmakers, with six military construction items totaling $602 million.

The Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on the Pentagon's FY-27 budget request this morning:

Hegseth says reconciliation 'floodgates' about to open, though only $26B of $154B have been obligated

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said today that the Pentagon is preparing to open the "floodgates" for industry as it moves to spend $154 billion in budget reconciliation funding Congress authorized last year, though one senior Republican said the process is "a bit late," noting the department only received the money from the White House last month and has obligated just $26 billion so far.

More coverage from this week's Modern Day Marine conference:

CNO talks amphib readiness, importance of ARG MEUs to homeland defense

As the Marine Corps works to increase amphibious ship readiness through budget proposals and review groups, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said today that the service is looking at "every lever available" in public and private yards, contracting, timelines, maintenance planning, training and force generation models to manage the lack of operational availability.

Marine Corps looking to FY-27 budget and review groups to increase amphib readiness

Marine Corps leaders are counting on the fiscal year 2027 budget proposal to reach their goal of a sustained 3.0 Amphibious Ready Group and Marine Expeditionary Unit presence, officials said this week.

Marine Corps seeking white papers for armor-piercing loitering munitions

The Marine Corps has put out a request for white papers for its Organic Precision Fires-Medium (OPF-M) program, meant to serve as a beyond-line-of-sight, precision-strike capability to hit tanks and other armored targets outside the range of direct-fire weapons.

CH-53K on track to deploy with 26th MEU next year

The CH-53K King Stallion is scheduled to deploy with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit in fiscal year 2027, marking the first shipboard, operational deployment for the Marine Corps' new heavy-lift helicopter, according to program manager Col. Kate Fleeger.

On April 27, the Defense Department inspector general announced it would assess "the effectiveness with which the [DOD] trained operators to use the Joint Fires Network to perform targeting and fire control across all Military Departments within the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility":

Pentagon watchdog opens evaluation of training for Joint Fires Network

The Pentagon's inspector general has opened an evaluation of how the U.S. military is training operators to use the Joint Fires Network, a battle-management system the department considers central to a potential high-end fight in the Pacific.

Document: DOD IG memo on joint fires network workforce

The House Appropriations defense subcommittee held a hearing this morning on the Air and Space forces' FY-27 budget request:

Calvert: Bring budget request back under discretionary spending

Putting hundreds of billions of dollars for the fiscal year 2027 budget request in a reconciliation package rather than the traditional discretionary funding process limits key oversight capabilities of Congress, House Appropriations defense subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert (R-CA) said this week.

News on military artificial intelligence-enabled operations:

DIU seeking adaptable data center duos to support AI-enabled operations in field

The Defense Innovation Unit wants to prototype a pair of modular data centers sharing a common architecture -- one semi-fixed and one mobile -- to support artificial intelligence-enabled operations across installations and contested battlefield environments, a call for solutions posted yesterday states.

The latest from our colleagues at Inside Cybersecurity:

CISA, Pentagon release zero-trust guidance for operational technology systems

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has released joint guidance with the Defense Department to help operational technology owners and operators adopt zero-trust principles, mapping specific activities to the NIST cybersecurity framework.

Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael this week pointed to the importance of the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs for warfighting capabilities:

DOD's SBIR/STTR leaders laud changes made to 'America's seed fund' program

Leaders for the Defense Department's programs that support small businesses through what is often called "America's Seed Fund" lauded today the changes that are being made to the program after its recent reauthorization.

The Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite consists of improved digital radar warning receiver performance and an active jamming capability, plus future growth upgrades, in an internal suite for the decades-old F-16:

Air Force lays out plan to buy 206 IVEWS units for F-16s through 2031

A modernized F-16 Fighting Falcon electronic warfare package is slated to get $438 million in fiscal year 2027 to upgrade 48 aircraft, according to Air Force budget documents, kickstarting the program’s long-awaited procurement.

General Dynamics and Textron executives discussed their companies' quarterly earnings this week:

Shipyard throughput improvements hoist GD maritime revenue

General Dynamics reported a 21% revenue surge in its marine business segment in the first quarter of 2026 with senior executives chalking up growth mostly to labor and material betterment across its shipyards.

Army 'actively pursuing' additional funding for MV-75, says Textron CEO

The Army is requesting additional funding for its MV-75 Cheyenne II helicopter program for the remainder of fiscal year 2026, Textron CEO Lisa Atherton said this morning during a company quarterly earnings call.

An abbreviated capability development document for S/VTOL Group 4 and 5 UAS was approved at the end of October, the Army’s Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Maneuver Air told Inside Defense last week:

Army moving out on contracting strategy for Group 4 S/VTOL UAS

The Army plans to quickly move ahead with its contracting strategy for Short/Vertical Takeoff and Landing unmanned aerial systems that are Group 4 and above throughout the remainder of fiscal year 2026 and into FY-27, according to the service.