What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project BD1 of PE 0602143A. 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 investigate advanced materials and sensor modalities for digital low-light imagers capable of operation in overcast starlight, with an emphasis on high performance, low power, and low cost for future Soldier-borne and attritable systems; design and develop a front-end application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for the next generation of small-pixel, large-format, continuous-bias thermal uncooled sensors to optimize size and power while increasing processing capabilities for Soldier-borne applications; investigate, design and develop government owned, advanced autonomy algorithms for Army Squad and Platoon level Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) to enable autonomous navigation in GPS denied and communication degraded environments
Funding decrease reflects reductions to development of micro-display and modeling, simulation and virtual prototyping technologies.
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 degree of improvement gained through advanced processing and signal multiplication methods for overcast starlight imagers; investigate high-speed, high definition supporting electronics for next generation small pixel large format infrared imaging arrays to streamline size, weight, and power (SWaP) and processing; determine Read Out Integration Circuit (ROIC) hybridization to support early pixel fabrication designs, leading to low SWaP sensors; investigate state of the art organic and inorganic light emitting diodes (LED) micro display technology for military applications.
Validate representation of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle cues and operation for minimized cognitive burden to the Soldier; investigates optimal data fusion for digital low light and long-wave infrared imagers to improve situational awareness and reduce time to acquire threats; investigate degree of tolerable latency for fusion of disparate sensors versus dismounted tasks; develop methods to improve alternative advanced materials and processing for imaging during overcast starlight performance; mature improved Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) low light level sensors in clear starlight light levels to validate readiness for integration into host systems; mature Read Out Integrated Circuit (ROIC) design and develop reduced pixel pitch high-definition longwave infrared (LWIR) sensors for tailorable SWaP and/or target acquisition performance; investigate novel technologies/algorithms to enable next generation micro-displays. Investigate novel battery technologies with applicability to current and emerging dismounted sensor 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 | 15.4 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 17.1 |
| FY2027 | Request | 11.0 |
This activity is 71% of project BD1's FY2027 request and 16% of PE 0602143A'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 BD1
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.