# Cyber Operations Studies and Concepts

**R-2A activity** of project MSL-04 — CYBER SECURITY  
**Program element:** 0602025E — Making, Maintaining, Supply CHAIN AND Logistics  
**Component:** Defense-Wide · **Budget Activity:** 2  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-04/a8  
**Parent:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-04

## Summary

This activity requests $39.5M in FY2027, 25% of project MSL-04, up 337% on FY2026. The R-2A exhibit describes it across FY2026–FY2027, including what the FY2027 money is planned to buy.

## What the FY2027 request buys

**FY2027 planned work.** - Develop techniques for automated identification of latent behaviors for heterogenous mega-systems to enable novel defenses. - Develop techniques for digital continuity of operations. - Use on-board sensor data to enable timely detection of cyber attacks. - Discover and prove logic flaws in security protocol implementations. - Learn to generate disruptive counter-strategies. - Develop techniques to prevent information reconstruction. - Enable network applications to function under severely impaired internet connectivity.

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** The FY 2027 increase reflects studies and concepts initiations including, but not limited to, applied research in developing techniques for digital continuity of operations, prevention of information reconstruction, and addressing logic flaws in security protocol implementations.

## Before the request year

**FY2026 plans — current year.** - Explore tools to predict disruptive innovation to help anticipate strategic surprise. - Explore channels that emerge from standard voice communications.

## Funding

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | Enacted | 9.0 |
| FY2027 | Request | 39.5 |

> Prior, current and budget year only — an R-2A activity carries no five-year plan. It sums exactly into its project in the request year and not necessarily in any other.

## Other activities in project MSL-04

- [Cyber Security and Resilience Studies and Concepts](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-04/a7) — FY2027 40.5
- [Constellation](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-04/a0) — FY2027 25.0
- [Intelligent Generation of Tools for Security (INGOTS)](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-04/a1) — FY2027 12.6
- [Business Process Logic (BPL)](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-04/a2) — FY2027 11.8
- Provably Weird Network Deployment and Detection (PWND²) — FY2027 9.4
- Reclaiming Bus-based Systems During Compromise (Red-C) — FY2027 6.2
- Pipelined Reasoning of Verifiers Enabling Robust Systems (PROVERS) — FY2027 6.1
- Cyber Agents for Security Testing and Learning Environments (CASTLE) — FY2027 6.1
- Hardening Development Toolchains Against Emergent Execution Engines (HARDEN) — FY2027 —
- Signature Management using Operational Knowledge and Environments (SMOKE) — FY2027 —

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Office of the Secretary of Defense RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibit R-2A, PE 0602025E project MSL-04 (PB PB2027). Narrative is the government's own text.
- **No marks, no contractors at this grain** — congressional marks land on the program element and R-3 performers on the project.
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_activity`.

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