# Science of Artificial Intelligence

**R-2A activity** of project 1501 — Autonomy/AI  
**Program element:** 0601153N — Defense Research Sciences  
**Component:** U.S. Navy · **Budget Activity:** 1  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0601153N/1501/a1  
**Parent:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0601153N/1501

## Summary

This activity requests $13.4M in FY2027, 48% of project 1501, up 583% 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.** - Continue research exploring integration of domain knowledge and physical models with machine learning for fast, robust learning of diverse complex concepts and tasks without the need for labeled data. - Continue research efforts regarding the use of artificial intelligence to advance the scientific understanding of AI-machine collaborative decision-making typical of Naval command decision making. - Continue research of formal verification and validation methods for artificial intelligence in the Naval domain to enhance trust. - Continue research investigations exploring explainable and verifiable artificial intelligence to enhance human-machine collaboration. - Continue research exploring new brain-inspired artificial intelligence algorithms and architecture to provide rich computational capabilities, with an emphasis on analog/digital hybrid systems, local core memory and multimodal sensing. - Continue research investigations of hardware designs based on brain models that are suitable for low power opto-electronic computation and signal processing in small Naval platforms. - Continue research efforts regarding autonomous problem solving and curiosity-driven search for solutions to enable robust performance under unexpected conditions. - Continue research efforts exploring composable computational models of vision-language interactions for intelligent agents that can learn and reason about the real world with high levels of complexity. - Continue both exploratory and confirmatory research with future naval application in Artificial Intelligence research area. - Continue research efforts into the use of Artificial Intelligence (incorporating, but not limited to Intelligent Agents, Cognitive Science, Robotics, Autonomy, Machine Learning (ML), and Multi-agent control planes/protocols) to explore the viability of future distributed autonomous unmanned systems and swarms. These research efforts will include present and future theoretical endeavors in the Cognitive S&T for the deployment of autonomous/interactive intelligent agents compatible with Allies and mission partners. This research area will address foundational theory in computational cognitive modeling for warfighter collaboration, S&T supporting deployment of adaptive autonomy, instructible autonomous systems, resilient agent-control to maintain desired states for deployed distributed autonomous unmanned swarms - including counter/disrupt/combat enemy swarms, and integrated, multi-agent (heterogeneous, human in the loop) autonomous systems. - Continue efforts into High Assurance Computing aimed at the theoretical underpinnings of assurance of deep neural networks, autonomous software-defined networking (SDN) orchestration, automation for reverse engineering and vulnerability analysis, Game-theoretic AI for defenses against cyber-attacks, adversarial threat modeling, privacy-enhancing technologies, covert and encrypted communications, field-programmable gate array (FPGA) based hardware assurance, automatic generation of Correct-by-Construction code. This endeavor also includes ground breaking basic S&T in intelligent agents for autonomic cyber maneuver, scaling and automation of algorithms for vulnerability discovery, mitigation, and weaponization, techniques for rapid verification of customized and/or reprogrammed versions of software/hardware as well as scalable cryptographic computing, cyber-ISR capabilities for an increasingly balkanized Internet, minimalism and composability in systems engineering and design, and integrated cyber-physical vulnerability analysis.

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** Funding increase due to increase of naval research into U.S. Navy AI research that is a critical strategic imperative required to outpace global competitors and secure maritime dominance. This investment will directly enhance warfighting effectiveness by scaling autonomous operations, achieving decision superiority through rapid data analysis, and maximizing fleet readiness with predictive maintenance and logistics. Mastering these AI-driven capabilities is essential for building a more lethal, resilient, and intelligent naval force prepared for future conflicts.

## Before the request year

**FY2026 plans — current year.** - Continue research exploring integration of domain knowledge and physical models with machine learning for fast, robust learning of diverse complex concepts and tasks without the need for labeled data. - Continue research efforts regarding the use of artificial intelligence to advance the scientific understanding of AI-machine collaborative decision-making typical of naval command decision making. - Continue research of formal verification and validation methods for artificial intelligence in the naval domain to enhance trust. - Continue research investigations exploring explainable and verifiable artificial intelligence to enhance human-machine collaboration. - Continue research exploring new brain-inspired artificial intelligence algorithms and architecture to provide rich computational capabilities, with an emphasis on analog/digital hybrid systems, local core memory and multimodal sensing. - Continue research investigations of hardware designs based on brain models that are suitable for low power opto-electronic computation and signal processing in small naval platforms. - Continue research efforts regarding autonomous problem solving and curiosity-driven search for solutions to enable robust performance under unexpected conditions. - Continue research efforts exploring composable computational models of vision-language interactions for intelligent agents that can learn and reason about the real world with high levels of complexity. - Continue research efforts into the use of Artificial Intelligence (incorporating, but not limited to Intelligent Agents, Cognitive Science, Robotics, Autonomy, Machine Learning (ML), and Multi-agent control planes/protocols) to explore the viability of future distributed autonomous unmanned systems and swarms. These research efforts will include present and future theoretical endeavors in the Cognitive S&T for the deployment of autonomous/interactive intelligent agents compatible with Allies and mission partners. This research area will address foundational theory in computational cognitive modeling for warfighter collaboration, S&T supporting deployment of adaptive autonomy, instructible autonomous systems, resilient agent-control to maintain desired states for deployed distributed autonomous unmanned swarms - including counter/disrupt/combat enemy swarms, and integrated, multi-agent (heterogeneous, human in the loop) autonomous systems. - Continue efforts into High Assurance Computing aimed at the theoretical underpinnings of assurance of deep neural networks, autonomous software-defined networking (SDN) orchestration, automation for reverse engineering and vulnerability analysis, Game-theoretic AI for defenses against cyber-attacks, adversarial threat modeling, privacy-enhancing technologies, covert and encrypted communications, field-programmable gate array (FPGA) based hardware assurance, automatic generation of Correct-by-Construction code. This endeavor also includes ground breaking basic S&T in intelligent agents for autonomic cyber maneuver, scaling and automation of algorithms for vulnerability discovery, mitigation, and weaponization, techniques for rapid verification of customized and/or reprogrammed versions of software/hardware as well as scalable cryptographic computing, cyber-ISR capabilities for an increasingly balkanized Internet, minimalism and composability in systems engineering and design, and integrated cyber-physical vulnerability analysis. - Continue both exploratory and confirmatory research with future naval application in Artificial Intelligence research area (realigned from project unit 1099).

## Funding

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 0.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 2.0 |
| FY2027 | Request | 13.4 |

> 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.

## Other activities in project 1501

- Science of Autonomy — FY2027 10.0
- Intelligent & Collaborative Agents — FY2027 4.3
- Expeditionary Decision Superiority — FY2027 0.0

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Department of the Navy RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibit R-2A, PE 0601153N project 1501 (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.*