What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project AH6 of PE 0602141A. 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.
Will mature biological synthesis and biomanufacturing to produce multi-kilogram quantities of energetic materials for formulation assessments; design and develop AI models for additional bio-reachable precursors for advanced energetics applications; begin conducting experiments for scale-up of next precursor molecule; designs and develops bio manufactured processes of energetic material to support scale-up and transition to defense base industry partners; investigate and determine additional biologically produced energetic precursor materials for scalability to support multi-kilogram quantities; mature biologically derived cellulose synthesis conditions for optimal purity, crystallinity, and fiber morphology and refine nitrating conditions for biologically derived cellulose to obtain nitrocellulose; determine impact of biologically derived nitrocellulose fibers on processing and performance of nitrocellulose propellants; investigate cellulose production from down selected candidates and synthetic biology routes for improved yield and quality; conduct experiments with artificial intelligence (AI) modeling to mature bacterial strains for higher production and ideal cellulose characterization.
Funding increase reflects additional research in both AI/ML modeling for laboratory research to mature production conditions of novel biologically-derived precursor material beyond cellulose. Funding increase supports investigation and development of formulations of biologically-derived nitrocellulose material as an additional source for nitrocellulose military-based applications.
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) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2027 | Request | 22.7 |
This activity is 82% of project AH6's FY2027 request and 9.8% of PE 0602141A'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.
2 activities in project AH6
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.