US defense spending is on track to top $1 trillion for the first time in history. Congress approved $900 billion for defense in 2026, and President Donald Trump has since proposed a staggering $1.5 trillion defense budget for 2027, the largest request in decades. Much of that money goes to weapons like the F-35, which can cost over $100 million apiece. So why are American weapons so incredibly expensive? In this episode of So Expensive, we trace more than a century of US military spending, from the Wright brothers selling the first military airplane for $30,000 in 1909, to Henry Ford's Willow Run plant cranking out a B-24 bomber every hour during World War II, to today's sprawling, trillion-dollar weapons programs. We also dig into how the defense industry consolidated from 51 major contractors down to just five: Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Raytheon, and General Dynamics. That shift gave these companies enormous leverage over the Pentagon. The result? Cost overruns, mi...