What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project BF9 of PE 0602145A. 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 determine optimal optical modulator technologies with high-bandwidth data transmission and high stability at cryogenic temperatures for integration with digital read-out integrated circuit (ROIC); validate laser sources coupled with photonic integrated circuits; continue performance assessments and maturation of embedded processing hardware for low-SWAP platforms such as Soldier-borne and small UAS (sUAS) platforms; investigate and validate adversarial and counter-aided target detection and recognition (AITDR) approaches in field environments; evaluate collaborative AITDR solutions for US Army tactical missions and participate in touchpoints to enhance AITDR with Soldier feedback; complete development and design verification testing of advanced readout-integrated circuit (ROIC) for uncooled thermal sensors with hardware-integrated capabilities, including snapshot and external triggers; begin development of improved pixel pitches for uncooled thermal sensors capable of continuous-bias operation, enabling distributed-aperture and motion applications; validate advanced, time-correlated algorithms for on-the-move operation using external processing hardware in a lab environment; determine efficacy of combining multi-sensor modality data with new algorithms to enhance automated threat recognition performance; mature and validate techniques using EO/IR and other modality sensor imagery from varying altitudes via unmanned aerial system platform to recognize maneuver obstacles and explosive threats in cluttered environments; investigate the combination of aerial- and ground-based threat nominations via teaming to enhance awareness and location of maneuver obstacles.
This is not a new start. FY 2027 funding increase reflects the consolidation of other ongoing efforts within this project from Advanced Sensors with Embedded Processing, Sensors, Electronics and Processing Approaches for Threat Overmatch and Advanced Technologies for Countermine in Complex Environments. Funding increase reflects additional research to continue the maturation of sensor and electronic components and processing approaches. Additionally, funding is restructured from Program Element (PE) 0602145A (Next Generation Combat Vehicle Technology / Project BJ2 (Tactical and Navigation Lasers Sensors Technology).
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 | 23.0 |
This activity is 100% of project BF9's FY2027 request and 33% of PE 0602145A'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.
4 activities in project BF9
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.