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RDT&E Program Element · President's Budget PB2027

Kessel Run Flight Operations

PE 0207461F·U.S. Air Force·Approp. 3600 — RDT&E·BA7 — Operational System Development
FY2027 Request
$16.0M
Air Force · RDT&E
◆ New start in FY2027 — no prior-year funding
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U.S. Air Force requests $16.0M in FY2027 against nothing enacted in FY2026, sustained across the five-year plan. In the FY2027 defense authorization, the House funded it in full; the Senate funded it in full; House appropriators funded it in full. 578th leads the industry work.

FY2027 Request
$16.0M
No FY2026 funding
FY2026 Enacted
$0.0M
No FY2025 funding
FY2025 Actual
$0.0M
Prior year

For fiscal year 2027, the U.S. Air Force is requesting $16.0M for Kessel Run Flight Operations under RDT&E program element 0207461F, against nothing enacted in FY2026.

Funding trajectory

Funding profile, FY2025–FY2031

Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure.

00.0FY25ACTUAL0.0FY26ENACTED16.0FY27REQUEST17.0FY2816.1FY2919.2FY3019.2FY31
Actual Enacted Request Outyear (FYDP)
Fiscal YearEstimate TypeAmount ($M)
FY2025Actual0.0
FY2026Enacted0.0
FY2027Request16.0
FY2028Outyear17.0
FY2029Outyear16.1
FY2030Outyear19.2
FY2031Outyear19.2
Where it sits

Acquisition lifecycle

This program is funded in RDT&E Budget Activity 7 — Operational System Development.

Complete
Research
BA 1–2
Complete
Advanced Technology
BA 3
Complete
Prototyping
BA 4
Current
Development & Fielding
BA 5–7
Inside the program element

1 project rolls up into PE 0207461F

Projects are the summable leaves — the PE total is their sum, never added to it. Program elements and projects carry the full five-year plan; activities stop at the budget year.

Project 674597

Kessel Run Flight Operations

$16.0MFY2027 request NEW
FY2025 actual$0.0M
FY2026 enacted$0.0M
FY2027 request$16.0M
Product DevelopmentSupportTest and EvaluationManagement Services

Kessel Run Flight Operations (KR Flight Ops) continues to develop and support software-based capabilities that optimize operational unit resource allocation, maximize the value of each mission or sortie, optimize fuel usage, and increase total force readiness. This program is required to enhance the Department of the Air Forces's ability to deliver mission-ready forces to meet global wartime and peacetime operations. Funding supports the development and fielding of the Aerospace Enterprise Readiness System (ARES), which is a cloud-based, modernized, and resilient application to support current and upcoming mission sets by providing operators with a single solution for tracking and monitoring schedules, training currency, stan/eval information, and resource allocation optimization. ARES provides real-time visibility into aircraft status, enabling informed decisions on sortie generation and readiness. Future capabilities may include data analytics and AI-driven scheduling and integration with Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) and autonomous air vehicles. The ARES application will allow for the deprecation of three legacy systems (Patriot Excalibur (PEX), Puckboard, and Graduate Training Integration Management System (G/TIMS)). These capabilities support Air Mobility Command (AMC), Air Combat Command (ACC), Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC), Air National Guard Bureau (ANGB), Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC), and United States Space Force (USSF) requirements. Efforts within this program align with and depend upon United State Air Force investment in Mission Planning Systems (PE 0208006F), Air Operations Center (PE 0207410F), All Domain Common Platform (0303248F), Command and Control Incident Management Emergency Response Application (C2IMERA) (0305836F), and Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) (0604003F) to deliver the Theater Air Planning System of Systems (TAP-SoS) architecture for the DAF BATTLE NETWORK. This program's efforts directly provide the development, infrastructure, and support necessary for each of these programs and TAP-SoS interdependencies, which provides the capabilities necessary for deliberate planning, dynamic mission replanning, friendly order of battle management, and mission tasking and execution.

Accomplishments / planned programs (R-2A) — prior, current and budget year only
Kessel Run Flight OperationsNEW
FY2025 actual—
FY2026 enacted$0.0M
FY2027 request$16.0M

• Further development of ARES capabilities to accelerate deprecation of Patriot Excalibur (PEX) and Puckboard applications. • Incorporate requirements for scheduling, to include combat scheduling, training management, and standardization and evaluation (stan/eval) that incorporates requirements from all MAJCOMs and provides an enterprise…

Read the FY2027 plan →
Congressional action

Congressional marks

Committee marks on the FY2027 request. Adds and cuts are reconciled in conference before they become law.

RequestPresident's Budget
$16.0M
House NDAA (HASC)HASC
$16.0M full · +$0
Senate NDAA (SASC)SASC
$16.0M full · +$0
House Approps (HAC-D)HAC_D
$16.0M full · +$0
unresolved as of 2026-07-27. These are FY2027 authorization marks (NDAA); appropriations and the conference agreement may differ.
Who's building it

Where the FY2027 request goes

Performers named in the R-3 exhibit, resolved into industry, government-lab, and unspecified shares. Budget-justification contract funding, not obligations.

578th
$2.3M · 14%
Software Engineering Squadron
Where FY2027 funding flowsShare$M
Industry primes15%2.4
Other / unspecified85%13.6
FY2027 request100%16.0
See 578th's full federal contract ledger members →
Program detail

Mission & acquisition strategy

Kessel Run Flight Operations (KR Flight Ops) continues to develop and support software-based capabilities that optimize operational unit resource allocation, maximize the value of each mission or sortie, optimize fuel usage, and increase total force readiness. This program is required to enhance the Department of the Air Forces's ability to deliver mission-ready forces to meet global wartime and peacetime operations.

Aerospace Enterprise Readiness System (ARES) began with a prototyping effort utilizing an Other Transaction Authority agreement IAW 10 U.S.C. 167; 4022. From this prototype phase, one successful offeror was selected to continue the development of ARES through a production agreement. Program management for Kessel Run Flight Operations (KR Flight Ops) is under direction of the Program Acquisition Executive (PAE) Command, Control, & Communication Battle Management (C3BM). The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) located at Hanscom AFB, MA is the contracting authority for the KR Flight Ops program. AFLCMC provides contracting, legal, comptroller, programmatic, engineering, test, and logistics support.

Project 674597 — Kessel Run Flight Operations
  • Product Development
  • Support
  • Test and Evaluation
  • Management Services
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Answers are generated from the figures on this page — the FY2027 justification exhibits and the marks tracked above — and nothing else is consulted. Confirm any figure against the cited exhibit before you use it externally.

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Questions this page can answer
How does the FY2027 request compare with FY2026, and what does the five-year plan show?What did the FY2027 NDAA committees do to this request?How is the FY2027 request split between industry and government performers?In plain terms, what is this program element for and how is it being acquired?
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This page carries the budget justification and the NDAA marks — nothing else. For what 578th has actually been obligated, the ledger is at hitchintel.com/vendors; for live solicitations, hitchintel.com/opportunities. Both are member surfaces.

Provenance

Cite this page

Sources
FY2027 Department of the Air Force RDT&E Budget Justification · Exhibits R-2 / R-3 · PE 0207461F (President's Budget PB2027) — and FY2027 NDAA committee marks, as tracked 2026-07-27.
Suggested citation
HitchAI, "Kessel Run Flight Operations (PE 0207461F)," federal budget intelligence, PB2027 vintage. hitchintel.com/programs/0207461F
Machine access
Markdown twin /programs/0207461F.md · MCP mcp.hitchintel.com → budget_get_program_element, budget_get_cong_marks