# Weather Service — Program Element 0305111F

**Program element:** 0305111F  
**Component:** U.S. Air Force  
**Appropriation:** 3600 — RDT&E, Air Force  
**Budget Activity:** 7 — Operational System Development  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0305111F

## Summary

U.S. Air Force funding falls 41% to a $29.3M request in FY2027 (down from a FY2026 peak), 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 added 6.8% (to $31.3M). AFLCMC leads the industry work.

## Funding profile

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 39.4 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 50.1 |
| FY2027 | Request | 29.3 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 32.7 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 32.7 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 32.9 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 33.6 |

> Estimate types are not summed — the profile mixes actuals, enacted law, the request, and outyear projections.

## Congressional marks (FY2027)

| Stage | Marked ($M) | Change ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| Request | 29.3 | — |
| House NDAA (HASC) | 29.3 | +0.0 |
| Senate NDAA (SASC) | 29.3 | +0.0 |
| House Approps (HAC-D) | 31.3 | +2.0 |

> FY2027 NDAA authorization marks, as of 2026-07-27. Not appropriations or final law.

## Projects (1)

| Project | Title | FY2025 actual | FY2026 enacted | FY2027 request | Move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 672738 | Weather Service | 39.4 | 50.1 | 29.3 | −41% |

> Projects are the summable leaves: the program element total is their sum, never added to it.

### Project 672738 — Weather Service

This budget activity funds the operational development necessary to acquire and modernize Air Force Weather Service [AFWS] capabilities in support of the 2026 National Defense Strategy's [NDS] lines of effort. To prioritize military excellence and readiness, AFWS provides timely, accurate, resilient, and relevant environmental information to enable global battle-space situational awareness for the Air Force [AF], Army, Special Operations Forces [SOF], Space Force [USSF], combatant commands, the Intelligence Community [IC], and other government agencies. AFWS provides extreme weather impacts and assessments, as well as space and terrestrial weather sensing, forecasting, and weather analytic capabilities, at home station and deployed, in order to deliver critical environmental information in support of decision makers to gain the asymmetric advantage during the full spectrum of air and space combat operations. AFWS decreases the risk to mission and risk to force by increasing the lethality, effectiveness, and survivability of Department of War [DoW] weapon systems. To re-establish deterrence, AFWS development efforts integrate DoW, government agency, commercial, and international partner environmental data and software with AFWS information systems for processing, storing, exploiting, and disseminating all-domain weather information for analysis, forecasting, mission integration, and greater interoperability. To rebuild our military and maximize lethality, AFWS sensors and information systems are being modernized through improvements to architecture and system efficiency, cybersecurity, joint all-domain command and control [JADC2] and sensing grid integration, environmental sensor development, migration to cloud computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning [AI/ML] initiatives, and expanding agile software development, rapid delivery, and integration practices. The AF Weather Enterprise digital transformation and cloud migration effort modernizes key capabilities providing the military advantage to accurately predict environmental impacts optimizing mission planning, targeting, weaponeering, mission execution, battle damage assessment, and space systems operations.

**Named R-3 performers** (share of this project's FY2027 R-3 total, so they need not reach 100%)**:** AFLCMC (5.5, 19%), NextGen Federal Systems (4.2, 14%), 46 TS (0.3, 1.0%).

| Activity (R-2A) | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed Base Weather System [FBWS] | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Expeditionary Weather [ExMet] | 0.6 | 0.0 | 0.6 |
| Portable Doppler Radar [PDR] | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Weather Data Analysis Increment 5 [WDA Inc 5] | 5.8 | 6.4 | 6.9 |
| Commercial Weather Data [CWD] | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 |
| Numerical Weather Modeling [NWM] | 14.3 | 14.6 | 13.5 |
| Weather Applications Rapid Production [WARPspeed] | 8.2 | 9.2 | 8.1 |

> R-2A activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. Coverage is partial, so count them, never total them.

## Where the FY2027 request goes

| Category | Share | $M |
|---|---|---|
| Industry primes | 34% | 10.0 |
| Other / unspecified | 66% | 19.3 |

**Top named industry performers:** AFLCMC ($5.5M, 19%), NextGen Federal Systems ($4.2M, 14%).

> R-3 exhibit contract funding, not USAspending obligations.

## Mission & acquisition strategy

This budget activity funds the operational development necessary to acquire and modernize Air Force Weather Service [AFWS] capabilities in support of the 2026 National Defense Strategy's [NDS] lines of effort. To prioritize military excellence and readiness, AFWS provides timely, accurate, resilient, and relevant environmental information to enable global battle-space situational awareness for the Air Force [AF], Army, Special Operations Forces [SOF], Space Force [USSF], combatant commands, the Intelligence Community [IC], and other government agencies.

AF Weather has adopted a CI/CD approach to delivering capabilities rapidly and routinely using multiple contracts to support a family of systems through development, fielding and sustainment. Cost Plus contracts are utilized for software development and sustainment and Firm Fixed Price contracts for Commercial-off-the-shelf [COTS] systems and Contract Logistics Support [CLS] efforts. Pre-competed General Services Administration [GSA], Defense Logistics Agency, and Defense Micro-Electronics Activity [DMEA] contract vehicles are leveraged when appropriate, and competitive and small-business awards are favored, as well as focused partnerships with select universities and government organizations with weather, AI/ML, and data sciences expertise.

## Related program elements

- [0101316F — Strategic Automated Command and Control System](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0101316F) (Air Force)
- [1201921F — Space Analysis and Application Development](https://hitchintel.com/programs/1201921F) (Air Force)
- [1207440SF — Autonomous Tactical Fabric](https://hitchintel.com/programs/1207440SF) (Space Force)
- [0601228D8Z — Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0601228D8Z) (Defense-Wide)

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Department of the Air Force RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibits R-2/R-3, PE 0305111F (PB PB2027); FY2027 NDAA committee marks (as of 2026-07-27).
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_program_element(pe="0305111F")`.

*HitchAI is an independent intelligence service, not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense. Budget figures are requests/estimates, not obligations.*