What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 624348 of PE 0602102F. 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.
- Continue the analysis, validation, and demonstration of the viability of inorganic/organic optical coatings, liquid crystal photonics, solid state photonics, and inorganic/organic optical metasurfaces technologies to protect against extreme electromagnetic environments. Activities include: -- Identification and growth of new crystal structures and stoichiometries to optimize optical properties. -- Down-selection of optimized metasurface designs for further investigation. -- Development of novel dopants for liquid crystal photonics for improved dynamic range. - Continue the development and demonstration the of response of advanced optical materials, including hybrid materials, for survivability. Activities include: -- Down-selection of materials for further development based on the most promising performance. - Continue leveraging machine learning approaches and modeling and simulation for integration of multidomain protection into structures and devices. Activities include: -- Further refinement of models to better simulate material performance and compare against lab scale testing. - Continue the assessment of data, validation of repeatability, and utilization of computational materials science to enhance multi-scale modeling for design of robust, reliable, integrated protection. Activities include: -- Demonstration of the manufacturability of the design. - Continue the development of wavelength agile technologies in novel form factors to protect against nuclear flash blindness. Activities include: -- Progression from coupon size testing to demonstration articles.
Funding decreased in FY 2027 compared to FY 2026 by $0.789 million due to the down-selection of fewer candidate advanced hybrid materials for further investigation into electromagnetic spectrum survivability. This reduction reflects programmatic adjustments to the DAF Science and Technology portfolio for strategic realignment to optimize core research areas and improve resource efficiency.
FY2026: the year under way
Prior-year accomplishments and current-year plans from the same exhibit. Context for the FY2027 plan, not a series — an activity partitions its project exactly in the request year, but can under-cover it in earlier years.
- Continue the analysis, validation, and demonstration of the viability of inorganic/organic optical coatings, liquid crystal photonics, solid state photonics, and inorganic/organic optical metasurfaces technologies to protect against extreme electromagnetic environments. - Continue the development and demonstration of the response of advanced optical materials, including hybrid materials, for survivability. - Continue leveraging machine learning approaches and modeling and simulation for integration of multidomain protection into structures and devices. - Continue the assessment of data, validation of repeatability, and utilization of computational materials science to enhance multi-scale modeling for design of robust, reliable, integrated protection. - Commence the development of wavelength agile technologies in novel form factors to protect system and subsystem materials against nuclear flash blindness.
Three years, and no five-year plan
An R-2A activity publishes the prior year, the current year and the budget year. The FYDP outyears exist at project and program-element level and are deliberately absent here rather than inferred. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure.
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 11.2 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 12.3 |
| FY2027 | Request | 11.6 |
This activity is 30% of project 624348's FY2027 request and 8.3% of PE 0602102F'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.
4 activities in project 624348
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.