What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 67775A of PE 0207439F. This is the budget justification's own description of work that has not happened yet — the one thing no other level of the budget carries.
Building on the successful prototyping and analysis from the previous year, the FY27 plan will transition the RAPIDS program to full-rate production. The primary objective is to field the modernized, smaller form-factor systems across the entire F-35 enterprise, replacing all legacy hardware. This phase will also execute the multi-platform expansion plan by integrating the proven RAPIDS architecture and MLS data transfer capabilities with other designated fighter platforms. This will create a truly interconnected data network, enabling rapid, secure, and automated mission data sharing across the combat air forces and solidifying a common data-driven ecosystem for future warfare.
Funding increase is to reach full fielding capability fir the F-35 and start transitioning the system to other platforms.
FY2026: the year under way
Prior-year accomplishments and current-year plans from the same exhibit. Context for the FY2027 plan, not a series — an activity partitions its project exactly in the request year, but can under-cover it in earlier years.
The FY26 plan focuses on operationalizing the modernized design. A key line of effort is laying the foundation for a future network Authority to Operate (ATO) on the redesigned system, which is critical for expanding authorized analysis tools and ensuring seamless data flow across DoD networks. This includes securing the personnel required to maintain compliance with existing ATOs. In parallel, this phase will involve procuring and fabricating initial prototypes to validate the design against operational requirements and conduct rigorous testing. Finally, this effort will include a formal analysis of alternatives to explore expanding RAPIDS capabilities to additional fighter platforms, identifying the technical and budgetary requirements for transferring mission data via cloud-based Multi-Level Security (MLS) solutions.
Three years, and no five-year plan
An R-2A activity publishes the prior year, the current year and the budget year. The FYDP outyears exist at project and program-element level and are deliberately absent here rather than inferred. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure.
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 0.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 5.2 |
| FY2027 | Request | 22.4 |
This activity is 100% of project 67775A's FY2027 request and 30% of PE 0207439F's. In the request year the activities under a project sum to it exactly; in the current year they under-cover it in about 9% of cases, so an activity's delta can legitimately exceed its parent's and the two must not be compared row to row.
1 activity in project 67775A
Every R-2A line of this project, largest FY2027 request first. Linked where the activity has enough of its own narrative to carry a page; the rest are shown in full on the project page.