What project 1503 buys
The Directed Energy & Kinetic Systems activity develops technologies to advance Naval applications of both directed energy (DE) and kinetic weapons. The main focus of DE weapons is to develop technologies that enable laser and high-power microwave (HPM) weapon systems --within Navy and Marine Corps size, weight, and power (SWAP) constraints- to strike enemy targets and to defend naval platforms and land bases from threats. Additionally, the DE activity develops technologies that enable defense against adversary DE systems. The main focus of kinetic weapons is to develop technologies that address the Navy and Marine Corps fires requirements for extended range; increased precision; decreased weapons fly-out times; greater destructive power and novel effects; autonomy, swarming, and human-machine teaming; mission planning and decision making; reduced production costs, and increased inventory and availability.
Project 1503 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.
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 0.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 16.9 |
| FY2027 | Request | 17.2 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 18.1 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 19.8 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 19.6 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 19.9 |
6 accomplishments / planned programs
The R-2A exhibit — the only level of the budget that describes work that has not happened yet. Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only, no five-year plan. Coverage is partial across the corpus, so count activities, never total them.
FY2027 planned work Initiate: - Research on novel biocatalytic synthesis of highly strained carbocycles as a new low-cost, low toxicity route to energetic materials. - Research on the design and evaluation of hyper-reactive grain boundaries in nanocomposite energetic additives for munitions and reactive materials applications. - Research on engineering multicomponent crystal properties through cocrystallization and doping for solid propellant applications. Continue: - Research on novel liquid fuel formulations along with studies on fundamental combustion reaction mechanisms for accurate modeling and prediction of new fuel performance. - Research into novel synthetic methods for accessing new energetic…
FY2026 to FY2027 change There is no significant funding difference between FY26 and FY27.
FY2026 plans — current year Initiate: - Research focused on developing advanced fuels for air-breathing ramjet applications along with building computational modeling tools for combustion performance prediction. - Investigation of new oxidizers and additives for next-generation solid propellants. Continue: - Research on new energetic materials and additives for solid propulsion and solid-fuel air-breathing propulsion applications. - Research on novel liquid fuel formulations along with studies on fundamental combustion reaction mechanisms for accurate modeling and prediction of new fuel performance. - Research into novel synthetic methods for accessing new energetic chemicals or new routes to existing chemicals for…
FY2027 planned work Continue: - Research to address technologies needed for long-range weapon components that can survive high temperature exposure for several minutes and defeat anti-access / area denial countermeasures. - Investigating the hypersonic boundary-layers and shock-wave / boundary-layer interactions, prediction of hypersonic weapon flight performance and control, environment-material interactions, exploration of ultrahigh temperature materials, and technologies needed for high-speed propulsion. Initiate: - Research supporting the development of Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) algorithms capable of handling uncertainties in aerodynamic coefficients and atmospheric conditions while…
FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding increase from FY 2026 to FY 2027 is due to increased research supporting the development of Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) algorithms capable of handling uncertainties in aerodynamic coefficients and atmospheric conditions while providing fault tolerance and the ability to adapt to minimize negative aerodynamic effects.
FY2026 plans — current year Continue: - Research to address technologies needed for long-range weapon components that can survive high temperature exposure for several minutes and defeat anti-access / area denial countermeasures. - Investigating the hypersonic boundary-layers and shock-wave / boundary-layer interactions, prediction of hypersonic weapon flight performance and control, environment-material interactions, exploration of ultrahigh temperature materials, and technologies needed for high-speed propulsion.
FY2027 planned work Initiate: - Research in optical phase mask (OPM) providing protection for sensors and platforms against threats from adversarial high energy laser systems Continue: - Fabrication of first scale devices utilizing the Berkley Surface Emitting Laser (BerkSEL) at ARL/Adelphi to determine the potentials of DIRAC Cone metamaterial structures in a light emitting diode laser assembly. - Examination of vertical cavity surface emitting laser diodes, as well as other compact high power photon emitters for compact high power laser source technologies [CHPLST] - Fabrication of new photonic deformed optics, including a deformable mirror powered only by light, using university developed photo-actuator…
FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding increase from FY 2026 to FY 2027 is due to increased research in optical phase mask (OPM) providing protection for sensors and platforms against threats from adversarial high energy laser systems.
FY2026 plans — current year Initiate: - Fabrication of first scale devices utilizing the Berkley Surface Emitting Laser (BerkSEL) at ARL/Adelphi to determine the potentials of DIRAC Cone metamaterial structures in a light emitting diode laser assembly. [CHPLST] - Initial fabrication of new photonic deformed optics, including a deformable mirror powered only by light, using recently university developed photo-actuator materials [MURI program spin off] Continue: - Examination of vertical cavity surface emitting laser diodes, as well as other compact high power photon emitters for compact high power laser source technologies [CHPLST] - Exploration of the underlying physics of photonic creation, materials interaction…
FY2027 planned work Initiate: - Improved understanding of Pulse Laser propagation mechanisms - Simulation and testing of pulse laser optical performance in complex environmental conditions - Research in novel pulse laser sources - Research in pulse laser interaction with materials - Research in pulse laser optics and beam directors - Research in pulse laser specific sensors and novel instrumentation Complete: - Research investigation of improved AI deep learning approaches for beaconless atmospheric turbulence prediction and compensation for deep turbulence. - Research into the evaluation of wavefront sensing, reconstruction, and control methods for deep turbulence in the field. - Research on interaction of…
FY2026 to FY2027 change There is no significant funding difference between FY26 and FY27.
FY2026 plans — current year Continue: - Research investigation of improved AI deep learning approaches for beaconless atmospheric turbulence prediction and compensation for deep turbulence. - Research into the evaluation of wavefront sensing, reconstruction, and control methods for deep turbulence in the laboratory. - Research on interaction of intense laser pulses with nanostructured surfaces, the role of disorder in promoting synchronization in technological systems of relevance to the Navy, hybrid quantum devices with the greatest technological impact to photonics and solid-state laser components, and extension of mode-locked laser and optical frequency comb technologies from the traditional near-infrared regime to…
FY2027 planned work Continue: - Research investigations in low profile, conformal, lightweight antenna technology suitable for harsh shipboard environment, as well as distributed array concepts for agile beam forming and improved radome materials -Research into solid-state and vacuum electronic based sources, oscillators and amplifiers, capable of scaling to higher power and flexible waveforms, - Research efforts in compact, repetative pulsed power modulators and novel driver architectures for HPM sources, to include solid state switches, novel dielectric insulating materials, high energy density capacitor, and additive manufacturing of high voltage components. - Research efforts in RF coupling and device…
FY2026 to FY2027 change There is no significant funding difference between FY26 and FY27.
FY2026 plans — current year Continue: - Research into solid-state and vacuum electronic based sources and amplifiers, antennas, high voltage storage switching components and power supplies, novel high power capable materials, radio-frequency coupling and electronic device interaction physics, predictive effects and modeling tools along with novel sensors and instrumentation at X-band and higher. - Research investigations in HPM technologies including not only consideration of sources, but also the supporting pulsed power, antennas, and other subsystems. - Research efforts in Solid-state and vacuum electronic based HPM sources capable of flexible waveforms. - Research in Distributed array sources for agile beamforming…
FY2026 to FY2027 change The decrease in funding from FY 2026 to FY 2027 is due to the realignment and consolidation of all expeditionary funding under PE 0601153N to the new Expeditionary Campaigns project number 1510 within this PE. Planned programs have been updated to align to current expeditionary and naval priorities.
FY2026 plans — current year - Complete basic research to conduct phenomenological studies involving the interaction of directed energy with matter. (Expeditionary Warfare)