# Project MSL-01 — MATERIALS PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY

**Program element:** 0602025E — Making, Maintaining, Supply CHAIN AND Logistics  
**Project:** MSL-01  
**Component:** Defense-Wide  
**Appropriation:** 0400 — RDT&E, Defense-Wide  
**Budget Activity:** 2 — Applied Research  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01  
**Parent:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E

## Summary

Project MSL-01 — MATERIALS PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY requests $133.2M in FY2027, 8.2% of the $1.62B requested for program element 0602025E, down 27% on FY2026. 8 R-2A activities decompose the request.

## Funding profile

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 0.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 182.5 |
| FY2027 | Request | 133.2 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 133.4 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 161.8 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 171.2 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 175.6 |

> Estimate types are not summed. This project is one leaf of PE 0602025E; the PE total is the sum of its projects, never added to them.

## What project MSL-01 buys

The major goal of the Materials Processing Technology project is to develop novel materials, fabrication and processing techniques, models, devices and components that will increase the performance, and/or enable new missions for military platforms and systems that can be manufactured at commercial scales. Included in this project are efforts across a wide range of technology areas including manufacturing, electronics, sensors, optics, and complex and autonomous systems. Prior to FY 2026, this Project was funded in PE 0602715E, Project MBT-01.

## Activities (R-2A) — 8

| Activity | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 | Move | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Functional Materials and Devices | — | 55.6 | 41.2 | −26% | [a0](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a0) |
| Materials for Extreme Environments | — | 34.3 | 20.1 | −42% | [a1](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a1) |
| Burn n' Go | — | 28.8 | 18.7 | −35% | [a2](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a2) |
| Carbon Crunch | — | 1.5 | 16.2 | +1000% | [a3](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a3) |
| Making, Maintaining, Supply Chains and Logistics Studies and Concepts | — | 7.2 | 13.7 | +90% | [a7](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a7) |
| Chemical Processing for Force Protection | — | 28.6 | 12.0 | −58% | [a4](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a4) |
| Grainy Day | — | 15.9 | 10.5 | −34% | [a5](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a5) |
| Reconfigurable Systems | — | 10.6 | 0.9 | −92% | — |

> Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. In the request year they partition this project exactly; in earlier years they can under-cover it.

### Functional Materials and Devices

- Perform a coupled optimization demonstration between high-throughput material testing and design optimization frameworks balancing performance, cost, and sustainability. - Establish a proof-of-concept manufacturing demonstration for a continuous material shape optimized component. - Initiate incorporation of enhanced quantum…

Full year-by-year narrative: https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a0

### Materials for Extreme Environments

- Complete builds of operationally relevant magnetohydrodynamic prototype pumps and conduct operational testing. - Conduct operational analysis and assessment of scalability study, evaluate future transition paths for PUMP technology. - Perform full scale inlet testing to verify modeling and simulation tools for VLEO inlets. - Complete…

Full year-by-year narrative: https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a1

### Burn n' Go

- Conduct assessment of designs to understand ability to meet mass production requirements. - Develop preliminary design of integrated system. - Test sub-scale solid rocket motor assembly. - Compare preliminary designs to potential transition partner requirements.

Full year-by-year narrative: https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a2

### Carbon Crunch

- Produce and test C-C 2D coupons and C-C 3D hypersonic-representative parts that mimic design features and manufacturing challenges seen in real, full-scale aeroshell. - Develop processes for high throughputs of C-C hypersonic aeroshells. - Design aeroshell production lines - Perform independent testing and assessment (i.e., material…

Full year-by-year narrative: https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a3

### Making, Maintaining, Supply Chains and Logistics Studies and Concepts

- Finalize experiment plan for autonomous control using nuclear physics predictions and advanced, combined neutronics models. - Develop air-breathing secondary fuel cells with far greater gravimetric energy density than current comparable energy solutions, while remaining safe, rechargeable, and easily manufactured. - Assess feasibility…

Full year-by-year narrative: https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a7

### Chemical Processing for Force Protection

- Integrate nitrogen oxidation catalysts into a small-scale reactor capable of delivering nitric acid at a particular rate.

Full year-by-year narrative: https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a4

### Grainy Day

- Complete first of four testing cycles, collect data, analyze and modify designs to optimize performance. - Begin second testing cycle with increased complexity at release conditions. - Complete second testing cycle and begin third testing cycle with increased complexity at release conditions. - Review improved capabilities with…

Full year-by-year narrative: https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a5

### Reconfigurable Systems

**FY2027 planned work.** - Conduct field exercises and DoW-relevant application demonstrations of high-performance, environmentally-robust optical clocks

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** The FY 2027 decrease reflects a shift from system development to field demonstrations.

**FY2026 plans — current year.** - Develop a fully operational high-performance, environmentally-robust portable optical clock device with picosecond timing precision. - Develop a fully operational high-performance, environmentally-robust transportable optical clock with month-long nanosecond holdover. - Demonstrate proof-of-concept vacuum ultraviolet laser system for preliminary spectroscopy and validation of a nuclear clock.

## What is NOT on this page

Congressional marks, the R-2 mission description and acquisition strategy, the industry vs government split of the whole request, and related program elements are recorded at **program-element** grain — an NDAA mark lands on a PE, never on a project. They are at https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E.

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Office of the Secretary of Defense RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibits R-2/R-2A/R-3, PE 0602025E project MSL-01 (PB PB2027).
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_program_element(pe="0602025E")`.

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