What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project AV9 of PE 0602146A. 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 continue to develop optical technologies for chip-scale holdover clocks by investigating and integrating a micro optical frequency comb with stability locking circuitry; integrate epsilon-near-zero resonator and assess locking stability potential; assess multi-modal architecture and fusion algorithms for precision PNT towards the development of complex sensing within a network of aerial platforms; investigate opportunistic sharing of PNT data utilizing interoperable messaging; mature non-RF broadband communication integrated low-size, weight, and power (SWaP) demonstrator to enable inter-unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) communications and synchronization; develop underlying integrated photonic array architecture for larger field of view applications; design and develop optimized micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) inertial sensors based on integrated advanced materials for precision PNT; mature inertial sensor components and tuning/stabilization technologies for precision PNT; develop transportable quantum electromagnetic field sensors that operate outside of laboratory environment; investigate solid-state material platform for magnetic field sensors and vapor phase atoms for electric field sensing to advance navigation capabilities in GPS-denied environments through techniques such as magnetic navigation and precision timing.
Funding realigned from Program Element (PE) 0602182A (C3I Applied Research) / Project DA8 (Quantum PNT & Radio Frequency Sensing) to consolidate all PNT related work into one project in FY 2027.
FY2026: the year under way
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 assess the performance of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) inertial sensors based on integrated advanced materials for precision PNT; will design and validate improved inertial sensors components and technologies for precision PNT; will develop techniques for distributed, collaborative radio frequency (RF) resiliency and threat detection, and navigation warfare (NAVWAR) technologies; will investigate and develop multi-modal sensor architectures and fusion algorithms for precision PNT; investigate synchronization and distribution architectures for resilient communications and precision PNT across payloads, platforms, and user equipment; will develop and assess optical technologies to improve precision timing and holdover; will assess epsilon near zero metamaterial resonators and retroreflectors for precision PNT.
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) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | Enacted | 8.0 |
| FY2027 | Request | 14.0 |
This activity is 85% of project AV9's FY2027 request and 26% of PE 0602146A'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 AV9
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.