# Hard Targets – Portfolio Management Office provisioning of Critical Cyberspace Capabilities.

**R-2A activity** of project CY50W2 — Cyber Weapons Tools/Hard Targets  
**Program element:** 0306250JCY — Cyber Operations Technology Support  
**Component:** Defense-Wide · **Budget Activity:** 7  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0306250JCY/CY50W2/a0  
**Parent:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0306250JCY/CY50W2

## Summary

This activity requests $586.0M in FY2027, 100% of project CY50W2, up 1762% on FY2026. The R-2A exhibit describes it across FY2026–FY2027, including what the FY2027 money is planned to buy.

## What the FY2027 request buys

**FY2027 planned work.** In FY 2027, $585.977M will support the continued development, sustainment, and scaling of capabilities transitioned to USCYBERCOM in FY 2026. These resources will ensure that transitioned capabilities are fully integrated into operational use, continuously modernized, and resilient against evolving adversary threats. Funding will also support intelligence driven opportunity analysis to inform development and operational integration of future capabilities required to counter emerging threats. Building on the foundation established in FY 2026, FY 2027 activities will emphasize operational sustainment, mission level evaluation, advanced modeling and simulation, maturation of IntelDevOps workflows, and continued development of the cyber workforce. FY 2027 investments are organized into five major thrust areas: • Operational Sustainment and Integration: Funding will ensure transitioned capabilities are fully embedded within USCYBERCOM’s operational environment and aligned with CMF requirements. Investments include sustainment of infrastructure, software, and test environments; development of DevSecOps pipelines for continuous integration and deployment; and lifecycle maintenance to ensure security, scalability, and adaptability in contested environments. Funding will also support knowledge transfer, training, and documentation to solidify capability adoption by operational forces. • Advanced T&E: Following initial Operational Acceptance achieved in FY 2026, FY 2027 funding will support integrated mission level T&E to validate operational effectiveness, survivability, and resilience under contested and degraded conditions. Activities include expansion of cyber range environments, red team assessments, and mission thread validation across multiple tools, systems, and joint mission partners. These efforts ensure capabilities are not only technically sound but operationally effective in realistic cyber conflict scenarios. • Enhanced M&S: Resources will advance the Department’s digital engineering transformation by scaling M&S from discrete capability chains to campaign level assessments across joint and coalition contexts. Investments will support development of a federated modeling ecosystem integrating physics based, network based, and intelligence informed models to support operational planning, wargaming, and trade space analysis. Incorporation of AI/ML into M&S will enable predictive mission outcome analysis and adaptive adversary modeling, increasing confidence in mission success across a range of threat conditions. • IntelDevOps Maturation: Funding will further operationalize IntelDevOps workflows to reduce intelligence to operations cycle time and improve agility in prosecuting hard targets. Efforts will focus on automating intelligence ingestion, triage, and fusion into operational workflows; expanding multi level classified networks to enable joint and interagency collaboration; and sustaining foreign materiel exploitation pipelines to ensure insights continuously inform capability development and employment. • Workforce Development and Partnerships: FY 2027 funding will expand training and certification pathways to ensure the Cyber Mission Force can effectively employ transitioned capabilities. Investments will also sustain partnerships with FFRDCs, UARCs, academia, and industry to maintain access to cutting edge research and technical expertise. Efforts will prioritize building a highly skilled, mission ready cyber workforce while enhancing interoperability with joint, interagency, and coalition partners.

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** The $554.515 million increase in FY 2027 reflects a deliberate restructuring of how the Department funds its most advanced cyber capabilities. The increase is driven by two primary factors: 1. Budgetary Consolidation FY 2027 includes $254.9 million that was previously appropriated as mandatory funding in FY 2025. This represents a structural budget realignment that consolidates resources into the Base budget to improve oversight, transparency, and long-term program management. This is a funding shift, not programmatic growth. 2. Transfer of Mission from Partner Organizations FY 2027 reflects the planned transfer of fiscal and programmatic responsibility for the IntelDevOps process from multiple government partners to USCYBERCOM. As capabilities designed for the nation’s hardest targets mature, this transition enables USCYBERCOM to directly manage the development, integration, and operational deployment pipeline. This shift significantly reduces the time from intelligence insight to operational effect and ensures continuity of mission execution. The associated funding is essential to assume this responsibility without operational disruption.

## Before the request year

**FY2026 plans — current year.** In FY 2026, $31.462M enables the HTPMO to acquire the contractual labor, manpower, facilities, and infrastructure required to support the transition, integration, and sustainment of critical cyberspace capabilities. During FY 2026, provisioning partners are expected to transition multiple capabilities to USCYBERCOM. These capabilities must be integrated, operationalized, and continuously maintained in a dynamic threat environment to ensure their effectiveness against adversary systems. FY 2026 investments are organized into three major thrust areas: • Test and Evaluation (T&E): Funding will support implementation of a comprehensive and robust T&E strategy. This includes early testing with external organizations, iterative developmental assessments, and integration of Developmental Test and Evaluation (DT&E) with Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) to assess operational effectiveness, suitability, and cyber survivability. Efforts will verify and validate cyber test tools, instrumentation, and data collection methods to ensure accuracy, repeatability, and defensibility of results. T&E activities, combined with modeling and simulation, will facilitate Operational Acceptance and ensure new capabilities meet the rigorous standards required for deployment to the Cyber Mission Force. • Modeling and Simulation (M&S): Funding will support advanced M&S to evaluate and demonstrate individual capabilities and full capability chains, and to assist operational planning by assessing non kinetic effects. Digital engineering and M&S tools will be used to rapidly model blue and red space and assess cyber capabilities and deployment strategies in realistic virtual environments, increasing confidence in mission success. This ecosystem enables integration of multi domain models (e.g., physics based and network based) for wargaming, trade space analysis, and capability assessment. This approach aligns with Department wide digital transformation priorities and the adoption of cutting edge technologies to enhance operational readiness. • Intelligence, Development, and Operations (IntelDevOps): To prosecute hard targets at speed and scale, funding will support IntelDevOps workflows that rapidly ingest time sensitive intelligence to ensure capabilities remain timely, accurate, and relevant. Investments include acquisition and sustainment of a multi level classified network to support IntelDevOps workflows and firing platforms. Funding will also support foreign materiel acquisition and exploitation activities, which inform capability development, validation, and employment. Funding also supports procurement of specialized expertise from independent partners such as Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs) to manage capability transition, test and evaluation, and execution of these thrust areas.

## Funding

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 56.9 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 31.5 |
| FY2027 | Request | 586.0 |

> Prior, current and budget year only — an R-2A activity carries no five-year plan. It sums exactly into its project in the request year and not necessarily in any other.

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Office of the Secretary of Defense RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibit R-2A, PE 0306250JCY project CY50W2 (PB PB2027). Narrative is the government's own text.
- **No marks, no contractors at this grain** — congressional marks land on the program element and R-3 performers on the project.
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_activity`.

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