What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 076 of PE 0602000D8Z. 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.
- Combine AI fuzing algorithms with a munitions fuze radar configuration to increase lethality in variable target encounter engagement conditions. - Investigate novel low-cost technology protection for munitions advanced electronics which can be applicable to multiple weapons systems and multiple electronic systems within those weapons. - Increase funding enables the development of high power and high energy density thermal batteries to extend run time versus baseline technology in the same form factor to support increased weapon system range. - Increase funding enables development and validation testing of adaptive, AI-Enabled missile design features for highly maneuverable weapon systems.
The increase of $4.453 million reflects the Department priority to accelerate maturing and applying munitions technology including lethality enhancing munitions and fuzing technologies.
FY2025–FY2026: what came before
Prior-year accomplishments and current-year plans from the same exhibit. Context for the FY2027 plan, not a series — an activity partitions its project exactly in the request year, but can under-cover it in earlier years.
- Conduct proof of concept tests of Adaptable Proximity Fuzing capability to more accurately detect moving targets at engagement terminal velocities. - Develop and begin laboratory testing of advanced thermal battery high energy cathode materials for high energy density munitions power sources. - Research and develop fuze architecture for advanced processing techniques using machine learning (ML) to enable detection and fuzing of fast-moving targets.
- Conduct development of Fast-Running Blast-on-Structure Lethality Models that reduce the uncertainty of lethality assessments and thus reduce over allocation of munitions in DoD weaponeering tools. - Complete testing of machine learning based target detection device to enhance missile lethality against maritime targets. - Conduct flight testing of dynamic trigger fuzing that optimizes warhead detonation point to optimize target defeat lethality.
Three years, and no five-year plan
An R-2A activity publishes the prior year, the current year and the budget year. The FYDP outyears exist at project and program-element level and are deliberately absent here rather than inferred. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure.
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 5.8 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 5.7 |
| FY2027 | Request | 10.2 |
This activity is 62% of project 076's FY2027 request and 32% of PE 0602000D8Z'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.
2 activities in project 076
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.