# Project BL1 — Materials and Manufacturing Research Technology

**Program element:** 0602144A — Ground Technology  
**Project:** BL1  
**Component:** U.S. Army  
**Appropriation:** 2040 — RDT&E, Army  
**Budget Activity:** 2 — Applied Research  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602144A/BL1  
**Parent:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602144A

## Summary

Project BL1 — Materials and Manufacturing Research Technology requests $18.5M in FY2027, 42% of the $44.1M requested for program element 0602144A, up 219% on FY2026. 5 R-2A activities decompose the request, 2 new this cycle.

## Funding profile

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 10.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 5.8 |
| FY2027 | Request | 18.5 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 17.3 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 16.6 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 16.4 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 16.4 |

> Estimate types are not summed. This project is one leaf of PE 0602144A; the PE total is the sum of its projects, never added to them.

## What project BL1 buys

This project links materials research, manufacturing processes, and design to enable high quality additive manufacturing products for Army applications through the development of high-performance feedstock materials (polymers, metals, and ceramics), physics-based process models, and in-situ process monitoring. Integration of these tools with process models enables real-time control and manipulation of material structure and properties to produce three-dimensional hybrid electronics packaging, power and energy sources and converters and new materials/structures for protection. The goal of this work is to develop robust physics-based models to optimize material properties, structures, and manufacturing processes for Army applications in protection, maneuver, power, sensing, and signature management necessary to rapidly respond to emerging and unknown threats in a battlefield environment. This work is done in coordination with Program Element (PE) 0602145A (Next Generation Combat Vehicle Technology), 0602143A (Soldier Lethality Technology) and 0603118A (Soldier Lethality Advanced Technology). Work in this project is performed by the Army Research Laboratory (ARL)

## Activities (R-2A) — 5

| Activity | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 | Move | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced Energy Storage Technologies for Safe, Effective Batteries in Operational Environments | — | — | 12.3 | new | [a4](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602144A/BL1/a4) |
| Advanced Manufacturing Research for Supply Chain Resilience | — | — | 5.3 | new | — |
| Energy Sources and Storage | 3.3 | 0.9 | 0.9 | +3% | — |
| Additive Manufacturing Research | 3.3 | 1.8 | — | −100% | — |
| Novel Armor Materials and Processes for Vehicle Protection | 3.4 | 3.0 | — | −100% | — |

> Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. In the request year they partition this project exactly; in earlier years they can under-cover it.

### Advanced Energy Storage Technologies for Safe, Effective Batteries in Operational Environments — NEW START

Will assess performance of standardized cylindrical energy storage cells produced with industry partner at extreme low temperature (-20 deg C to -60 deg C) as well as effects on ambient and elevated temperatures (up to 60 deg C) performance and stability; explore integration of low temperature capable cells into experimental battery…

Full year-by-year narrative: https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602144A/BL1/a4

### Advanced Manufacturing Research for Supply Chain Resilience — NEW START

**FY2027 planned work.** Will design and develop advanced manufacturing methodologies, including additive manufacturing and novel feedstock development to support on-demand, novel manufacturing and enhancing a resilient supply chain; design and develop advanced manufacturing science for high throughput and complex geometries; design and develop lightweight survivability technologies for conventional kinetic and non-kinetic threats as well as emerging threats (unmanned aerial systems, high energy weapons, etc.); investigate materials to protect from directed energy weapons; design and develop lightweight, damage resistant, transparent armor materials and data-driven processing methodologies for personnel and sensor protection.

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** This is not a new start effort. FY 2027 funding increase reflects the consolidation of other ongoing efforts within this project from Additive Manufacturing Research and Novel Armor Materials and Processes for Vehicle Protection to support the creation of Advanced Manufacturing Research for Supply Chain Resilience.

### Energy Sources and Storage

**FY2027 planned work.** Will research highly efficient catalysts for solid oxide fuel cells stable against sulfur contaminants.

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** Funding increase is an economic adjustment.

**FY2026 plans — current year.** Will research advanced electrolytes and interfaces for high energy rechargeable lithium-ion batteries; investigate high voltage electrolyte, cathodes, and different pairing combinations of each with high capacity anodes; explore electrode processing methods and effects of loading, additives, and material microstructure, to include process-induced changes on heterogeneity and ordering effects on electrode performance; determine electrolyte formulation to improve battery lifetime; determine physical, chemical and electrochemical properties of electrode-electrolyte interphase layer formation and stability, and methods of optimization for longer battery life; investigate advanced anodes and their stability under high power and fast charge conditions.

**FY2025 accomplishments.** Identify and assess electrolytes compatible with silicon anode batteries to optimize cycle life, charge rate, thermal stability, and low temperature performance; determine the failure modes of chemically modified silicon anodes and the stability as a function of utilization and pressure; investigate the origin of safety issues in both graphite and silicon anode high energy battery cells that are new and have been recharged many times; investigate thermal behavior of Lithium (Li)-ion battery cells at elevated temperatures; investigate the thermal stability of low cobalt or cobalt free high energy battery cathodes; assess Li-ion battery cells using oxide and rock-salt based anodes; investigate fast ion conductors for monolithic solid electrolytes, and complementary electrode integration for high energy Li-ion batteries; investigate origins of low initial columbic efficiency and capacity fade in use of micro-sized silicon anode nanoparticles for high-energy and high-rate Li-ion batteries; mature novel aqueous and non-aqueous battery electrolytes and their compatibility with high capacity and high voltage electrodes to enhance energy density and safety across different operating conditions; investigate the lifetime of AI-controlled, multi-chemistry battery systems under high charging-rates; develop baseline for electrochemical synthesis of ammonia and explore electrolyte and electrocatalyst candidates for ammonia synthesis from direct water and air inputs; mature liquid fuel energy conversion materials and components to include ethanol reformation catalysts to improve catalytic activity lifetime and coupling strategies between radiant tube burners and thermal energy converters to increase efficiency.

### Additive Manufacturing Research

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** Funding decrease reflects realignment to Advanced Manufacturing Research for Supply Chain Resilience within this project.

**FY2026 plans — current year.** Will mature components for printed fragmentation munition casing of novel metal alloys for active protection and optimize conversion of casing-to-fragmentation for increased lethality; continue to design and develop advanced manufacturing feedstock alloys and develop recycled feedstocks suitable for advanced manufacturing; mature high strength alloys and lightweight/ultra-high strength alloys for protection; mature processing and materials technologies for cost effective lightweighting of indirect fire platforms.

**FY2025 accomplishments.** Assess printed fragmenting munition casing of novel metal alloys for active protection and explore improved conversion of casing-to-fragmentation to increase lethality; develop advanced manufacturing feedstock alloys and explore recycled feedstocks for advanced manufacturing; investigate controlled warhead fragmentation methods and develop methods to tailor fragmentation patterns; assess ultra-high strength steel and high strength/lightweight alloys for vehicle protection; investigate novel methods of creating controlled warhead fragmentation for higher energy density munition propulsion and consistent burn performance; develop and mature materials and processes for cost effective light weighting of combat vehicles for indirect fire platforms; assess 3D printed electronics for fuzing, guidance, navigation, and control (GNC), and communication links for high g-force survivability; optimize tailored fragmentation pattern utilizing computational optimization of tailored fragmentation utilization advanced manufacturing techniques.

### Novel Armor Materials and Processes for Vehicle Protection

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** Funding decrease reflects realignment to Advanced Manufacturing Research for Supply Chain Resilience within this project.

**FY2026 plans — current year.** Will design and develop lightweight armor for conventional kinetic and non-kinetic threats as well as emerging threats (unmanned aerial systems, high energy weapons, etc.); design and develop materials to protect from directed energy weapons; design and develop lightweight, damage resistant, transparent armor materials and data-driven processing methodologies for personnel and sensor protection; design and develop materials and processes for ground vehicle propulsion systems; investigate and determine evolving threats to guide materials design concept for non-conventional scenarios and emerging technologies.

**FY2025 accomplishments.** Continue work restructured from PE 0602145A, Project BI4 Materials Application and Integration Tech, to develop lightweight, low cost, damage resistant transparent armor glass/polymer laminates with optical transmissivity at wavelengths suitable for personnel and sensor protection; assess transparent armor material processing methodologies; develop new materials or laminates for vehicle and sensor protection; assess performance of dissimilar material joints (welded, solid state, adhesively joined) under high rate/complex loading conditions; design and develop weldable high toughness, high hard steel armor plate; assess novel metals for ground vehicle propulsion systems.

## What is NOT on this page

Congressional marks, the R-2 mission description and acquisition strategy, the industry vs government split of the whole request, and related program elements are recorded at **program-element** grain — an NDAA mark lands on a PE, never on a project. They are at https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602144A.

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Department of the Army RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibits R-2/R-2A/R-3, PE 0602144A project BL1 (PB PB2027).
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_program_element(pe="0602144A")`.

*HitchAI is an independent intelligence service, not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense. Budget figures are requests/estimates, not obligations.*