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 validation and verification of scientific, engineering, and processing methods for domestic bio-production of critical materials including characterization, qualification, demonstration, downstream purification, production scale up, and biomanufacturing. Activities include: -- A focus on natural rubber, fuels, and energetics to meet specific needs of the Department of the Air Force. - Continue the demonstration of laboratory testing and methods development to assess the reliability and field resiliency of biological materials including natural and synthetic rubber, protective coatings, and adhesives. - Continue the collaboration with the NanoBio Manufacturing Consortium (NBMC) and NextFlex (formerly known as Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Institute), with specific focus on validation of biomaterials including adhesives and coatings for Department of the Air Force applications. - Continue the development of biocementation materials for agile basing, infrastructure and expeditionary operations, including runway stabilization. Activities include: -- Field testing in representative environments against operational requirements. - Continue the evaluation of experimental methods to optimize biomanufacturing of rare earth elements and other critical material precursors essential for Department of Air Force applications. - Continue the development of bio-derived molecules for advanced fuels, propellants and energetics for Department of the Air Force high-speed critical aerospace systems. Activities include: -- Laboratory scale testing and evaluation.
Funding in FY 2027 decreased by $1.011 million compared to FY 2026 due to programmatic adjustments that shifted resources from the biomanufacturing of rare earth elements and development of bio-derived molecules for fuels. 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 validation and verification of scientific, engineering, and processing methods for domestic bio-production of critical materials including characterization, qualification, demonstration, production scale up, and biomanufacturing to address unique requirements for the Department of the Air Force. - Continue the demonstration of methods to assess reliability and field resiliency of biological materials including natural and synthetic rubber, protective coatings, and adhesives against current Department of the Air Force technical and operational gaps. - Continue the collaboration with the NanoBio Manufacturing Consortium (NBMC) and NextFlex (formerly known as Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Institute), focusing on joint projects to accelerate development of domestic biomanufacturing technologies for critical Department of the Air Force needs. - Continue the development and scale-up of biocementation materials for agile basing, infrastructure and expeditionary operations, including runway stabilization. - Commence the development of experimental methods to optimize biomanufacturing of critical material precursors essential for Department of Air Force applications. - Commence the development of bio-derived molecules for advanced fuels, propellants and energetics for Department of the Air Force high-speed critical aerospace systems.
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 | 13.1 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 14.5 |
| FY2027 | Request | 13.5 |
This activity is 35% of project 624348's FY2027 request and 9.6% 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.