Project 2939
$325.0MFY2027 request ▼ 7%RQ-4 Modernization
FY2025 actual$428.4M
FY2026 enacted$350.1M
FY2027 request$325.0M
Product DevelopmentSupportTest and EvaluationManagement Services
FY2027 Request
$344.9M
▼ 4.7% vs FY2026
FY2026 Enacted
$361.9M
▼ 18% vs FY2025
FY2025 Actual
$444.0M
Prior year
Roll-up of 2 projects. Projects are the summable leaves — the PE total is their sum, never added to it.
For fiscal year 2027, the U.S. Navy is requesting $344.9M for RQ-4 Modernization under RDT&E program element 0305421N, down 4.7% from FY2026.
Funding trajectory
Funding profile, FY2025–FY2031
Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure.
Actual Enacted Request Outyear (FYDP)
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 444.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 361.9 |
| FY2027 | Request | 344.9 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 329.1 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 138.4 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 132.9 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 135.4 |
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
2 projects roll up into PE 0305421N
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. This PE moves -5% overall, which can hide much larger swings below.
Project 3329
$19.9MFY2027 request ▲ 68%ISR&T Sensor Payloads
FY2025 actual$15.7M
FY2026 enacted$11.8M
FY2027 request$19.9M
Product DevelopmentSupportTest and EvaluationManagement Services
Congressional action
Congressional marks
Committee marks on the FY2027 request. Adds and cuts are reconciled in conference before they become law.
RequestPresident's Budget
$344.9M
House NDAA (HASC)HASC
$344.9M full · +$0
Senate NDAA (SASC)SASC
$344.9M full · +$0
House Approps (HAC-D)HAC_D
$344.9M 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.
Northrop Grumman
$256.2M · 74%
NAWC-AD
$40.8M · 12%
| Where FY2027 funding flows | Share | $M |
|---|---|---|
| Industry primes | 92% | 316.9 |
| Other / unspecified | 8.1% | 28.0 |
| FY2027 request | 100% | 344.9 |
Program detail
Mission & acquisition strategy
MISSION: Project Unit 2939: The MQ-4C Triton Unmanned Air System (UAS) is a high altitude-long endurance UAS designed to provide Fleet and combatant commanders with persistent maritime Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance & Targeting (ISR&T) of nearly all the world's high-density sea-lanes, littorals, and areas of national interest. The Triton air vehicle, mission control system, specialized sensors, and communications suite play a significant role in achieving the Navy's strategic vision for the 21st century. Triton provides persistent ISR&T and unparalleled situational awareness of the maritime battle space to the supported combatant commander and fleet commander.
The MQ-4C Triton acquisition approach supports the Navy's Maritime Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Targeting (MISR-T) Transition Plan. It provided a stable and effective baseline Early Operational Capability (EOC) in 2020 to facilitate Fleet introduction and learning while continuing development engineering and integrated test on Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), and other upgrades delivered in Increment 1 at IOC. Following the completion of Increment 1 development in FY2023 and achievement of IOC, Increment 2 capability development initiated without a gap in development.
Project 2939, 3329 — RQ-4 Modernization
- Product Development
- Support
- Test and Evaluation
- Management Services
Ask Hitch
Ask this program element
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?Which project inside PE 0305421N is growing fastest, and which is shrinking?How is the FY2027 request split between industry and government performers?
This page carries the budget justification and the NDAA marks — nothing else. For what Northrop Grumman 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 Navy RDT&E Budget Justification · Exhibits R-2 / R-3 · PE 0305421N (President's Budget PB2027) — and FY2027 NDAA committee marks, as tracked 2026-07-27.
Suggested citation
HitchAI, "RQ-4 Modernization (PE 0305421N)," federal budget intelligence, PB2027 vintage. hitchintel.com/programs/0305421N
Machine access
Markdown twin
/programs/0305421N.md · MCP mcp.hitchintel.com → budget_get_program_element, budget_get_cong_marksFY2027 Request
$325.0M
▼ 7.2% vs FY2026
FY2026 Enacted
$350.1M
▼ 18% vs FY2025
FY2025 Actual
$428.4M
Prior year
RQ-4 Modernization — one RDT&E project inside PE 0305421N. Congressional marks are recorded on the program element, not on a project.
Project 2939 — RQ-4 Modernization — requests $325.0M in FY2027, 94% of the $344.9M requested for program element 0305421N. Year over year it falls 7.2% against FY2026.
Funding trajectory
Project 2939 funding, FY2025–FY2031
Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure. Projects carry the full five-year plan; the activities inside them stop at the budget year.
Actual Enacted Request Outyear (FYDP)
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 428.4 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 350.1 |
| FY2027 | Request | 325.0 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 306.3 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 115.3 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 110.1 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 112.1 |
Inside the project
4 accomplishments / planned programs
The R-2A exhibit. Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan — and they are descriptive: coverage is partial and they do not always add back to the project, so count them, never total them. Opening lines only here — the full year-by-year narrative is on the project page.
FY2025 actual$398.8M
FY2026 enacted$322.1M
FY2027 request$295.1M
FY27 continues to develop Increment 2 to incrementally incorporate software and hardware capability improvements, building on the Increment 1 baseline to ensure ongoing relevance of the MQ-4C capability. Increment 2 development includes efforts to provide advanced radar modes inclusive of GMTI, development of a high data rate (HDR)…
Read the FY2027 plan →ILS, Support, Studies & Analysis▲ 40%
FY2025 actual$4.1M
FY2026 enacted$4.2M
FY2027 request$5.9M
FY27 continues support development and integration of product support considerations for Triton's Increment 2 development. FY27 activities will include implementation of requirements for logistics support, technical engineering services, sensor reliability and maintainability risk reduction, logistics supportability analyses and…
FY2025 actual$23.4M
FY2026 enacted$21.7M
FY2027 request$22.0M
FY27 continues to support integrated test team labor to reduce risk in design and development, perform subsystem level ground and acceptance testing, and obtain the necessary satellite communications required for system level test. To support the Increment 2 program schedule, the program continues System Level II and III testing…
Read the FY2027 plan →Program Management (PM)▼ 7%
FY2025 actual$2.1M
FY2026 enacted$2.1M
FY2027 request$2.0M
FY27 continues PM support and travel, development of milestone and acquisition-related documentation, capability refinement and open systems architecture development, resource justification, affordability assessments and cost analyses, risk reduction and risk management, system integration and interoperability planning, technology…
Who's building it
Named performers on project 2939
Performers named in the R-3 exhibit under this project. Share is of the project's whole FY2027 R-3 total — the same denominator the program-element split uses, so the two read on one scale and will not sum to 100% when unnamed or government work is in the mix. Budget-justification contract funding, not obligations.
Northrop Grumman
$256.2M · 79%
NAWC-AD
$40.8M · 13%
Huntington Ingalls
$6.3M · 1.9%
Boeing
$4.8M · 1.5%
Project detail
What project 2939 buys
Project Unit 2939: The MQ-4C Triton Unmanned Air System (UAS) is a high altitude-long endurance UAS designed to provide Fleet and combatant commanders with persistent maritime Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance & Targeting (ISR&T) of nearly all the world's high-density sea-lanes, littorals, and areas of national interest. The Triton air vehicle, mission control system, specialized sensors, and communications suite play a significant role in achieving the Navy's strategic vision for the 21st century. Triton provides persistent ISR&T and unparalleled situational awareness of the maritime battle space to the supported combatant commander and fleet commander. Triton provides the Warfighter with unprecedented levels of battlespace awareness to synchronize actions necessary to maintain maritime full spectrum superiority. Teamed with its manned-capability counterpart, the P-8A Poseidon, Triton is a key component of the Navy's maritime domain awareness family of systems. MQ-4C Triton leverages Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Force manpower, training and maintenance efficiencies. Triton Early Operational Capability (EOC) was deployed in 2020 to provide early fleet integration risk reduction. It successfully prepared the fleet for fielding Initial Operational Capability (IOC) and concluded in 2022. In July 2023, Triton fielded the Increment 1 Multi-Intelligence (Multi-INT) IOC on schedule, successfully meeting the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) requirements. This enabled the Navy's Maritime Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting (MISR-T) transition plan and initiated EP-3 Aries sundown. The Increment 1 Multi-INT capability provides Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), Counter Electronic Attack (CEA) upgrades, and data dissemination across multiple classification domains. Triton initiated Increment 2 development in FY 2023.
R-3 lines of work
- Product Development
- Support
- Test and Evaluation
- Management Services
FY2027 Request
$19.9M
▲ 68% vs FY2026
FY2026 Enacted
$11.8M
▼ 25% vs FY2025
FY2025 Actual
$15.7M
Prior year
ISR&T Sensor Payloads — one RDT&E project inside PE 0305421N. Congressional marks are recorded on the program element, not on a project.
Project 3329 — ISR&T Sensor Payloads — requests $19.9M in FY2027, 5.8% of the $344.9M requested for program element 0305421N. Year over year it grows 68% against FY2026.
Funding trajectory
Project 3329 funding, FY2025–FY2031
Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure. Projects carry the full five-year plan; the activities inside them stop at the budget year.
Actual Enacted Request Outyear (FYDP)
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 15.7 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 11.8 |
| FY2027 | Request | 19.9 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 22.8 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 23.1 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 22.9 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 23.3 |
Inside the project
4 accomplishments / planned programs
The R-2A exhibit. Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan — and they are descriptive: coverage is partial and they do not always add back to the project, so count them, never total them. Opening lines only here — the full year-by-year narrative is on the project page.
ISR&T Sensor Payloads▲ 71%
FY2025 actual$15.2M
FY2026 enacted$11.3M
FY2027 request$19.3M
The details of program element 0305421N Project 3329 are classified and are submitted to Congress in the classified budget justification books.
ISR&T Support▲ 12%
FY2025 actual$0.2M
FY2026 enacted$0.2M
FY2027 request$0.2M
The details of program element 0305421N Project 3329 are classified and are submitted to Congress in the classified budget justification books.
ISR&T Test and Evaluation▼ 4%
FY2025 actual$0.1M
FY2026 enacted$0.1M
FY2027 request$0.1M
The details of program element 0305421N Project 3329 are classified and are submitted to Congress in the classified budget justification books.
ISR&T Program Management▲ 6%
FY2025 actual$0.2M
FY2026 enacted$0.2M
FY2027 request$0.2M
The details of program element 0305421N Project 3329 are classified and are submitted to Congress in the classified budget justification books.
Project detail
What project 3329 buys
The details of program element 0305421N Project 3329 are classified and are submitted to Congress in the classified budget justification books.
R-3 lines of work
- Product Development
- Support
- Test and Evaluation
- Management Services