What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 2939 of PE 0305421N. 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.
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) beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) capability to support EO/IR sensor upgrade, EO/IR detection in support of GEOINT for increased maritime domain awareness, Integration of HGA for improved SIGINT, communications and networks resiliency in denied environments, implementation of multi-UA C2, and implementation of SAA traffic and weather capability for increased mission availability and airspace integration, as well as addressing required DMS, cyber security updates and training requirements.
Product development efforts continue in FY27 and while the program received an increase in funding to maintain Increment 2 development efforts, the overall funding levels decreased from FY26 as Increment 2 systems design and development efforts mature and near completion.
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.
FY26 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, EO/IR detection in support of GEOINT for increased maritime domain awareness, Integration of HGA for improved SIGINT, communications and networks resiliency in denied environments, implementation of multi-UA C2, and implementation of SAA traffic and weather capability for increased mission availability and airspace integration, as well as addressing required DMS, cyber security updates and training requirements.
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 | 398.8 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 322.1 |
| FY2027 | Request | 295.1 |
This activity is 91% of project 2939's FY2027 request and 86% of PE 0305421N'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.
4 activities in project 2939
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.