# Future Verticle Lift Technology — Program Element 0602148A

**Program element:** 0602148A  
**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/0602148A

## Summary

U.S. Army funding falls 54% to a $17.7M request in FY2027 (down from a FY2026 peak), sustained across the five-year plan. In the FY2027 defense authorization, the House added 14% (to $20.2M); the Senate funded it in full; House appropriators added 243% (to $60.7M).

## Funding profile

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 33.5 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 38.9 |
| FY2027 | Request | 17.7 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 20.0 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 19.2 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 22.4 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 22.0 |

> Estimate types are not summed — the profile mixes actuals, enacted law, the request, and outyear projections.

## Congressional marks (FY2027)

| Stage | Marked ($M) | Change ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| Request | 17.7 | — |
| House NDAA (HASC) | 20.2 | +2.5 |
| Senate NDAA (SASC) | 17.7 | +0.0 |
| House Approps (HAC-D) | 60.7 | +43.0 |

> FY2027 NDAA authorization marks, as of 2026-07-27. Not appropriations or final law.

## Projects (7)

| Project | Title | FY2025 actual | FY2026 enacted | FY2027 request | Move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BZ7 | Future Vertical Lift Medical Technologies | 7.5 | 6.9 | 7.2 | +4% |
| CI5 | High Speed Maneuverable Missile (HSMM) Tech | — | 0.6 | 5.4 | +793% |
| CH3 | Holistic Team Survivability Technology | 10.9 | 3.5 | 3.1 | −12% |
| CC3 | FVL Radar Technologies | 5.0 | 3.4 | 2.1 | −39% |
| BP7 | Future Vertical Lift Air Platform Tech (CA) | 5.0 | 18.5 | — | −100% |
| CI4 | Adaptive Avionics Technologies | 2.9 | 3.6 | — | −100% |
| AL8 | Holistic Situational Awareness and Dec Making Tech | 2.2 | 2.4 | — | −100% |

> Projects are the summable leaves: the program element total is their sum, never added to it.

### Project BZ7 — Future Vertical Lift Medical Technologies

This project involves research to prevent injury and performance degradation in Aviators, Unmanned Arial System (UAS) Operators and other Warfighters in training and operations; refines risk assessment and performance models based on operational stressors, e.g., sleep deprivation, work load, fatigue; and delivers biomedical-based spinal injury criteria and assessment methodologies. This research provides medical information important to the design and operational use of future vertical lift aircraft, and when appropriate, ground vehicles. Work is performed at the United States Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory (USAARL).

| Activity (R-2A) | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medical Standards to Support Future Vertical Lift (FVL) | 7.5 | 6.9 | — |
| Medical Standards to Support Design of Future Vertical Lift (FVL) | — | — | 7.2 |

> R-2A activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. Coverage is partial, so count them, never total them.

### Project CI5 — High Speed Maneuverable Missile (HSMM) Tech

The project investigates, designs, and evaluates missile component technologies compatible with Future Vertical Lift (FVL) and Future Unmanned Aircraft Systems (FUAS) aviation platforms and ground platforms in a Multi-Domain Battle/Cross-domain Maneuver operational environment. Efforts provide technologies to support a smaller, faster, maneuverable missile capable of long-range non-line-of-sight attack in contested/degraded environments. Technology development increases aviation and ground lethality and platform survivability by increasing missile standoff range, speed, and maneuverability, a faster rate of fire, shorter times of flight, and multi-threat lethal effects. Enables cross domain applications for aviation and ground vehicle platforms, including handoff capability, to engage threats in dead zones, and to operate in contested environments. Work in this project is fully coordinated with Program Element (PE) 0603465A (Future Vertical Lift Advanced Technology), Project CK2 (High Speed Maneuverable Missile Adv Tech). Work in this project is performed by Aviation and Missile Center (AvMC).

| Activity (R-2A) | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| High Payoff Aviation Missile Technology (HPAMT) Dev | — | 0.6 | 5.4 |

> R-2A activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. Coverage is partial, so count them, never total them.

### Project CH3 — Holistic Team Survivability Technology

This project will investigate and design advanced survivability technologies to develop a holistic team-based solution that delivers advanced sensing and electronic warfare (EW) effects across a family of aircraft to optimally penetrate and survive in the anti-access/area denial (A2AD) environment. This project will take an integrated team-based system of systems survivability approach through a purpose-driven mix of improved survivability situational awareness, signature management, vulnerability reduction, enhanced platform survivability against directed energy munitions, route and maneuver optimization, expendables, advanced sensors, and electro-optics (EO) & radio frequency (RF) jamming for existing and future air platforms. This project will also provide advanced teaming algorithms for survivability. This project develops and evaluates multi layered survivability concepts and supporting technologies for increased survivability of Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Family of Systems (FVL FoS) in an advanced and evolving integrated air defense systems environment. Work in this project is fully coordinated with Program Element (PE) 0603465A (Future Vertical Lift Advanced Technology) / Project CG1 (Holistic Team Survivability Adv Tech). Work in this project is performed by Aviation & Missile Center (AvMC) and Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center.

| Activity (R-2A) | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced Survivability Concepts | 3.4 | 3.5 | — |
| Distributed Electronic Warefare Effects | 7.5 | — | — |
| System Survivability and Protection in Complex Environments - Concepts (SSPiCE-C) | — | — | 3.1 |

> R-2A activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. Coverage is partial, so count them, never total them.

### Project CC3 — FVL Radar Technologies

This project develops underlying technologies applicable to next generation airborne radars used for detection, tracking and precision targeting, navigation and fire control for multiple modalities. It develops fully automated target recognition for radar, advanced processing techniques, distributed radar sensing and sensor coordination methods needed for targeting-quality detect, identify, locate and report (DILR) capabilities from airborne platforms. Efforts improve radar survivability and lethality across the Aviation ecosystem, speed target prosecution timelines for actionable information on the battlefield and provide the Warfighter with persistent DILR enabling day/night/all-weather sensing in congested/contested Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) environments. Work in this project is fully coordinated with Program Element (PE) 0603465A (Future Vertical Lift Advanced Technology) / Project CC4 (FVL Radar Advanced Technologies). Work in this project is performed by Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center.

| Activity (R-2A) | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airborne Distributed Radar | 5.0 | 3.4 | 2.1 |

> R-2A activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. Coverage is partial, so count them, never total them.

### Project BP7 — Future Vertical Lift Air Platform Tech (CA)

Congressional Interest Item funding provided for Future Vertical Lift Platform Technology.

### Project CI4 — Adaptive Avionics Technologies

This project will Build on Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) successes to enable future aviation mission systems to proactively exploit emerging innovation from multiple technological domains, employing continuous development and continuous deployment by researching and developing advanced avionics integration techniques and optimized processing management. Work in this project is fully coordinated with Program Element (PE) 0603465A (Future Vertical Lift Advanced Technology) / Project CI8 (Adaptive Avionics Advanced Technologies). Work in this project is performed by Aviation & Missile Center (AvMC).

| Activity (R-2A) | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Future Avionics Implementation Research (FAIR) | 2.9 | 3.6 | — |

> R-2A activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. Coverage is partial, so count them, never total them.

### Project AL8 — Holistic Situational Awareness and Dec Making Tech

This project focuses on modeling and simulation of pilotage and decision aiding system technology that allows for carefree operations in complex and hostile environments. Work in this project is fully coordinated with PE 0603465A (Future Vertical Lift Advanced Technology Development) / Project AL9 (Holistic Sit Awareness and Dec Making Adv Tech). Work in this project is performed by Aviation & Missile Center (AvMC).

| Activity (R-2A) | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holistic Mission Manager (HMM) Concepts | 2.2 | 2.4 | — |

> R-2A activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. Coverage is partial, so count them, never total them.

## Mission & acquisition strategy

This PE is directly aligned to the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Army Modernization Priority. This PE conducts air vehicle and mission system component design, fabrication, and evaluation to enable Army Future Vertical Lift. Emphasis is on developing aviation platform and mission system technologies to enhance manned and unmanned air vehicle combat and combat support operations for attack, reconnaissance, air assault, survivability, logistics, and command and control missions.

## Related program elements

- [0602345A — Unmanned Aerial Systems Launched Effects Applied Research](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602345A) (Army)
- [0603465A — Future Vertical Lift Advanced Technology](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603465A) (Army)
- [0604256N — Threat Simulator Development](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604256N) (Navy)
- [0604295M — (u)marine Aviation Demonstration/validation](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604295M) (Navy)

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Department of the Army RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibits R-2/R-3, PE 0602148A (PB PB2027); FY2027 NDAA committee marks (as of 2026-07-27).
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_program_element(pe="0602148A")`.

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