What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 0000 of PE 0602123N. 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: - Computational studies of reaction pathways in terms of mechanistic and kinetic details to guide energetic materials synthesis and scale up development. - Research focused on new reactive material formulations and configurations for warhead use. New consolidated effort towards high performing explosive oxidizer materials, polymer binders, and new energetic material molecular configurations for simplistic, cost-effective synthesis of potentially high temperature explosives. New compliant commodity ingredients, and new scale-up and formulation processes will be transitioned to the industrial base as appropriate. - Novel dynamic experimentation in support of design, evaluation and progression of enhanced lethality warhead concepts with focus on smaller form-factor without sacrificing effect on target; and advanced solid rocket motor, air-breathing, and other novel tactical propulsion concepts for extended range and reduced time-to-target with additional focus on throttling capability for extended range. - Applied research focused on development, scale up, and evaluation of novel explosive, propellant, and reactive composite ingredients and energetic formulations, in addition to dynamic diagnostic experimental and multi-scale theoretical efforts for development of next generation higher performing weapon systems. - Research focused on ingredient chemistry and chemical processing technologies. This work includes: synthesis, scale up, and evaluation of new energetic (i.e. explosives, oxidizers, fuels) and other formulation-enabling ingredients (i.e. polymer binders, plasticizers), and exploration and adaptation of innovative mixing, formulation, and other novel manufacturing processes for agile progression of enhanced energetic formulations. - Computational effort to model reaction pathways and kinetics in caged nitramine synthesis, with applications toward exploring new potential molecular energetic modalities in organic molecules. - Research on new metallized propellant ingredients for enhanced solid fuel formulations with higher energy content for longer range rocket motors. - Research in development and application of experimental diagnostics of novel energy conversion concepts to enhance performance, more efficiently exploit available energy, and more effectively couple energy to target for air, surface, and underwater warhead and propulsion applications. This work includes: explosive blast, reactive materials, and propulsion relevant combustion science, shock-wave/energetic formulation studies, advanced tactical propulsion concepts, and ingredient specific structure/property studies. Initiate: - Research on the commonly used rocket motor polymer binder hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) focused on understanding variations in material/chemical properties and their effects on polymer curing and mechanical characteristics. - Applied research focused on the development of advanced warhead technologies, including configurations with reactive materials, to significantly enhance hypersonic weapon lethality for various target types. Research includes materials development, dynamic performance testing, and lethality modeling and simulation. - Applied research focused on energetic materials relevant aspects of advanced air-breathing and detonation-based tactical propulsion concepts, materials and configurations, and modeling. Specifically, this includes synthesis, evaluation, and testing of novel high-energy-density fuel formulations designed to enhance combustion performance and detonability for application in high-speed air-breathing propulsion systems, including ramjet, scramjet, and rotating detonation engines (RDEs), to enable next-generation hypersonic capabilities.
The funding increase from FY2026 to FY2027 is due to the increase in applied research focused on energetic materials relevant aspects of advanced air-breathing and detonation-based tactical propulsion concepts, materials and configurations, and modeling.
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.
Overall, continue applied advanced energetic materials research efforts focused on longer range, reduced time-to-target, enhanced lethality/target effects, and cost savings pertaining to kinetic weapons without sacrificing insensitive munitions requirements. Continue: -Computational studies of reaction pathways in terms of mechanistic and kinetic details to guide energetic materials synthesis and scale up development. -Research focused on new reactive material formulations and configurations for warhead use. New consolidated effort towards high performing explosive oxidizer materials, polymer binders, and new energetic material molecular configurations for simplistic, cost-effective synthesis of potentially high temperature explosives. New compliant commodity ingredients, and new scale-up and formulation processes will be transitioned to the industrial base as appropriate. -Novel dynamic experimentation in support of design, evaluation and progression of enhanced lethality warhead concepts with focus on smaller form-factor without sacrificing effect on target; and advanced solid rocket motor, air-breathing, and other novel tactical propulsion concepts for extended range and reduced time-to-target with additional focus on throttling capability for extended range. -Applied research focused on development, scale up, and evaluation of novel explosive, propellant, and reactive composite ingredients and energetic formulations, in addition to dynamic diagnostic experimental and multi-scale theoretical efforts for development of next generation higher performing weapon systems. -Research focused on ingredient chemistry and chemical processing technologies. This work includes: synthesis, scale up, and evaluation of new energetic (i.e. explosives, oxidizers, fuels) and other formulation-enabling ingredients (i.e. polymer binders, plasticizers), and exploration and adaptation of innovative mixing, formulation, and other novel manufacturing processes for agile progression of enhanced energetic formulations. -Research in development and application of experimental diagnostics of novel energy conversion concepts to enhance performance, more efficiently exploit available energy, and more effectively couple energy to target for air, surface, and underwater warhead and propulsion applications. This work includes: explosive blast, reactive materials, and propulsion relevant combustion science, shock-wave/energetic formulation studies, advanced tactical propulsion concepts, and ingredient specific structure/property studies. Complete: -Research in development and application of modeling, simulation, and computation to predict dynamic response and effects of energetic processes such as ignition, combustion/deflagration, shock, fragmentation, and detonation in order to predict weapon performance, lethality, and lifecycle for air, surface, and underwater weapon applications. -New methods toward applied theory and model development for shock interactions. New experimental and physics based sub-model development for incorporating novel damage effects into lethality codes. Initiate: -Computational effort to model reaction pathways and kinetics in caged nitramine synthesis, with applications toward exploring new potential molecular energetic modalities in organic molecules. -Research on new metallized propellant ingredients for enhanced solid fuel formulations with higher energy content for longer range rocket motors.
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 | 5.5 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 5.1 |
| FY2027 | Request | 10.9 |
This activity is 8.6% of project 0000's FY2027 request and 7.9% of PE 0602123N'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.
5 activities in project 0000
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.