What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project CJ7 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 validate modeling and simulation of highly loaded grain (HLG) propulsion technology for air defense interceptor applications through lab testing; validate enhanced lethality from reactive material warhead solutions to improve modeling for lower- tier air and missile defense and C-UAS applications; conduct experiments to validate the design of vertical launch technologies that enable future air defense interceptor launch platforms; investigate concepts for advanced radar component technologies to improve air defense missile seeker Size Weight And Power (SWAP) and improve radar processing capabilities; perform trade studies, mature modeling and simulation capabilities, and design and develop critical missile component technologies required to defeat emerging AMD threats; work alongside industry to design and develop interceptor component technologies and system designs to enhance performance against subsonic and/or supersonic cruise missiles and tactical/lethal UAS threats at greatly reduced costs; enable a highly competitive flyoff environment for multiple vendors and develop independent government modeling and simulation testbed capabilities to assess low-cost counter-cruise missile interceptor technologies.
Funding increase reflects acceleration of technology development and system concepts with multiple vendors supporting lower cost extended range advanced concepts and solutions to address the cruise missile threat.
FY2025–FY2026: what came before
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.
Will validate through lab and range testing SFRJ propulsion technology in the current Stinger form factor to achieve increased range while maintaining current launcher compatibility; develop modeling and simulation capability to analyze and design highly loaded grain (HLG) propulsion technology for air defense interceptor applications; validate practicality of reactive material warhead solutions to improve lethality for lower- tier air and missile defense and C-UAS applications; design, develop and analyze vertical launch technologies to inform design of future air defense interceptor launch technologies; investigate, concepts for advanced radar component technologies to improve air defense missile seeker Size Weight And Power (SWAP) and improve radar processing capabilities; perform trade studies, mature modeling and simulation capabilities, and design and develop critical missile component technologies required to defeat emerging AMD threats.
Develop and evaluate solid fuel ramjet (SFRJ) propulsion technology in the current Stinger form factor to achieve increased range while maintaining current launcher compatibility; validate missile attitude control systems (MACS) design by conducting experiments on component technology for various missile defense applications; develop and evaluate reactive material warhead technologies to improve lethality for lower-tier air and missile defense applications; investigate, develop concepts, perform trade studies, improve modeling and simulation capabilities, and develop critical missile component technologies required to defeat emerging Air and Missile Defense (AMD) threats.
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 | 4.5 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 4.3 |
| FY2027 | Request | 120.7 |
This activity is 100% of project CJ7's FY2027 request and 52% 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.
1 activity in project CJ7
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.