What project ACS-01 buys
The All Domain Tactical Technologies project examines and evaluates emerging technologies and system concepts for developing technologies for enhancing U.S. military effectiveness and survivability in operations across all domains. Enabling and novel technologies include concepts for expanding the envelope of operational naval capabilities to include the entire sea column such as improved situational awareness over large maritime environments, ship self-defense techniques, novel underwater propulsion modalities, high speed underwater vessels, improved techniques for underwater object detection and discrimination, long endurance unmanned surface vehicles, methods and techniques for servicing assets throughout the sea column, and high bandwidth communications. This project will also examine methods and architectures for distributing maritime operations to enable a more agile, survivable, and cost-effective fleet. Technologies will be studied for enhancing U.S. military effectiveness and survivability in ground operations ranging from traditional threats to military operations against irregular forces that can employ disruptive or catastrophic capabilities, or disrupt stabilization operations, including competing in underground spaces. Programs in this project will break the relative symmetry of land combat to strengthen and maintain U.S. forces' decisive advantages in the current and future ground battlefield. Aeronautics and space technology efforts studied will address high payoff opportunities that dramatically reduce costs associated with advanced aeronautical and space systems and/or provide revolutionary new system capabilities for satisfying current and projected military mission requirements. This includes advanced technology studies of revolutionary propulsion, vehicle, and launch concepts, sophisticated fabrication methods, and examination of novel materials and enabling technologies for aeronautics and space system applications. Studies that also fundamentally change the calculus of battle including consideration of a mix of assets, platforms that are potentially disposable or with limited lifespans, and autonomous integration of space and air platforms in the tactical battlespace are included. Prior to FY 2026, efforts in this Project were funded in PE 0602702E, Projects TT-03, TT-04, and TT-07.
Project ACS-01 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 | 92.6 |
| FY2027 | Request | 101.9 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 176.3 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 208.1 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 218.2 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 222.2 |
8 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. 4 of them describe FY2027 work in enough detail to have their own page; the rest are shown here in full. Coverage is partial across the corpus, so count activities, never total them.
- Explore research of novel tactical designs and build low-cost platforms that can be rapidly produced at scale and employ distributed effects on the battlefield, optimized for the environment of choice. - Investigate new propulsion technologies that offer improved thermal and thrust characteristics that will open new avenues of tactical…
Read the FY2027 plan →- Conduct iterative risk reduction through challenge cycles supporting prototype digital twin design validation. - Evaluate prototype AI test agents using a faster than real time evaluation environment and real-world test data from an active experimental flight test program. - Initiate design development of complete CyPhER prototype…
Read the FY2027 plan →- Build software- in-the-loop simulations (SWIL) to verify mission planning and subsystem performance. - Conduct closed-loop SWIL testing with applied vehicle and payload concept constraints. - Verify that sufficient control authority is maintained by autonomous navigation and enhanced efficiency propulsion systems. - Verify spacecraft…
Read the FY2027 plan →- Demonstrate the combination of land and ocean soaring techniques in a mission relevant environment. - Improve soaring prediction capabilities and algorithms to ensure operational relevance and enable extended range and endurance in operational applications. - Integrate capabilities and technologies to enable new broad, long-term, and…
Read the FY2027 plan →FY2027 planned work - Conduct additional field and laboratory testing in complex signal environments. - Upgrade system prototype based on lessons learned from field and laboratory testing. - Finalize system design and open architecture interfaces.
FY2026 to FY2027 change The FY 2027 decrease reflects a shift from system integration to final testing.
FY2026 plans — current year - Integrate hardware components of prototype RF surveillance system. - Integrate orchestration algorithms into prototype RF surveillance system and test in a laboratory environment. - Field test initial prototype system in a complex signal environment.
FY2026 to FY2027 change The FY 2027 decrease reflects program completion.
FY2026 plans — current year - Complete objective capabilities. - Conduct further live demonstrations. - Transition applicable technologies to stakeholders.
FY2026 to FY2027 change The FY 2027 decrease reflects program completion.
FY2026 plans — current year - Complete development of carbon dioxide sorption systems that can withstand typical impurities found in post-combustion streams under a variety of burn conditions. - Integrate carbon dioxide reduction catalysts with reactor platforms to produce a carbon electrolysis system with a high fuel production rate in a compact form factor. - Complete a benchtop reversible carbon fuel cell as a first step towards a future fully rechargeable carbon-based battery system.
FY2026 to FY2027 change The FY 2027 decrease reflects program completion.
FY2026 plans — current year - Integrate combat relevant payloads onto both the large-scale and small-scale platforms to experiment with US Army units. - Complete exploration of new sensing methods and perception models to determine the implications on speed for off-road autonomy.