What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project MSL-01 of PE 0602025E. 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.
- 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 transition partners.
The FY 2027 decrease reflects the shift to fewer performers participating in the later testing cycles.
FY2026: the year under way
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.
- Establish subject matter government team to finalize test site requirements. - Create initial concept designs and begin fabrication cycle. - Fly prototypes in first of four testing cycles, collect data, analyze and modify designs to optimize performance. - Review initial capabilities with transition partners.
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) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | Enacted | 15.9 |
| FY2027 | Request | 10.5 |
This activity is 7.9% of project MSL-01's FY2027 request and 0.6% of PE 0602025E'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.
8 activities in project MSL-01
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.