Air Platform Applied Research

Will extend AvMC's high-fidelity flight-dynamics modeling tool to incorporate improved aerodynamic interaction models; investigate flight control system concepts and flying qualities requirements for Launched Effects (LE).

Will develop Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) vision-based navigation algorithms and train using flight test data; develop sensor-based data and digital terrain elevation data fusion methods.

Will explore/assess autonomy algorithms from industry for future testing on AvMC UH-60Mx flying laboratory; develop autonomy framework that leverages best autonomous technologies/capabilities from across the enterprise.

Will synthesize industry design, development and demonstration data and other analysis findings to document the viability, advantages/disadvantages, challenges, transition opportunities, and development timelines for hybrid-electric vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) aircraft.

Will demonstrate the first technology in a series of technology development efforts; continue design of propulsion and power component technology to consist of advanced supplementary power, engines, and/or drive system technology for application to Future Vertical Lift aircraft; funded agreements with industry are anticipated to conduct…

Will investigate barriers to adoption and gaps in MOSA implementation to develop improvements for architecture verification processes and methodologies; determine MBSE techniques to support integration in FVL and feeder S&T program MOSAs; develop processes for hosting, managing, and maturing a Joint Army/Navy/Air Force Domain Specific…

FY2027 planned work Will develop experimental investigations of high-speed rotorcraft hover performance in terms of key aerodynamic flow physics boundaries to performance at high thrust near rotor stall. Will investigate experimental means to acquire accurate measurements of parameters required for high performance computing tool validation.

FY2026 to FY2027 change FY27 funding decrease reflects reduction in development of experimental test hardware and associated test campaigns.

FY2026 plans — current year Will investigate technologies to improve high speed rotorcraft hover and forward flight performance; conduct experiments to determine and validate promising technologies and advanced rotorcraft designs; investigate state of the art measurement & data analysis techniques for rotorcraft to provide new or improved data sets for computational tool validation; design and develop rotorcraft vibration experiments to provide validation data for computational tool validation.

FY2025 accomplishments Will mature advanced high speed compound rotorcraft wing designs to provide improved hover and forward flight performance; conduct tests to investigate methods of rotorcraft hub drag reduction; investigate state of the art measurement & data analysis techniques for rotorcraft to provide new or improved data sets for computational tool validation; investigate passive and active methods for rotor performance improvements.

FY2027 planned work Will evaluate Helios predictions at tiltrotor hover performance boundary. Will integrate control system dynamics into rotors/airframe model to capture important physics. Will perform validation of Helios-GPU and explore mid-fidelity models to support FVL and launched effect simulations.

FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding increase reflects planned validation of advanced turbulence model in Helios-GPU.

FY2026 plans — current year Perform high-fidelity aeromechanics simulation using Helios to predict performance and loads for MV-75 and other FVL aircraft; integrate the acoustics prediction tools with Helios and validate the integrated software for acoustic predictions of FVL configurations; test the integrated flight control interface for maneuver simulations to support FVL; verify and validate the whirl flutter predictions in RCAS/Helios to support MV-75 development and testing.

FY2025 accomplishments Will test and validate the higher-order computational models for FVL and FTUAS configurations for improved accuracy. Will perform validation of permeable-surface formulation for acoustics predictions for FVL configurations. Will conduct a performance evaluation of the GPU version of rotorcraft computational model for Future Vertical Lift (FVL) configurations.

FY2025 accomplishments Will develop optimized structural concepts with innovative internal stiffening and health monitoring for UAS and other platform applications. Will develop innovative composite structure manufacturing technologies and FVL-relevant fabricate proof-of-concept component.

FY2027 planned work Will target ongoing and evolving gaps informed by?ongoing interaction with Project Management Offices, Cross Functional Teams and Office of Enterprise Management (OEMs).?Promising concepts developed under MASC and other innovative research efforts will transition for further development that includes integration and?testing in relevant rotorcraft environments and ground or large scale lab test?conditions.

FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding increased to continue development of promising technologies that contribute to lower cost, high manufacture rate, highly performing Army relevant VTOL and aircraft structures. Funding realigned from Program Elements (PE) 0603043A / Project CV2, 0602148A / Project AL8, 0602148A / Project CH3, 0602148A / Project CI4, and 0602183A / Project CW5.

FY2026 plans — current year Will develop materials and methods to improve composite interlaminar damage tolerance properties, with efforts conducting analysis and experiments to mature structural concepts; fund research in enhanced analysis, improved fabrication techniques, and manufacture methods of structural composites that perform under challenging load conditions representative of rotorcraft environments.

FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding decrease reflects planned conclusion of this effort.

FY2026 plans — current year Will commence rotor blade component fabrication and conduct a manufacturing trial to show cost and time benefits.

FY2025 accomplishments Will conduct initial rotor blade manufacturing technology screening and down select. Start component test planning.

FY2027 planned work Will conduct initial rotor system technology integration studies; start rotor system component test planning.

FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding increase reflects initiation of this effort. Funding realigned from Adv Teaming for Tactical Aviation Operations Tech (0602345A / Project A41), Advanced Rotors Advanced Tech (0603043A / Project CX1), Experimental and Computational Aeromechanics (06022183A / Project CW5), Holistic Team Survivability Adv Tech (0603465A Project CG1), and Systems Design Technology (0602183A / Project CU9).

FY2027 planned work Will further develop and integrate tools and methods for aviation platform design. Will continue to improve optimization methods. Will explore rapid aircraft design processes. Will explore integration of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to improve design cycle. Will apply tools and methods to emerging concepts of interest including sUAS, utility, cargo, endurance UAS, electric Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL), hybrid-electric, and contested logistics.

FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding decrease reflects a realignment of the effort to Control & Autonomy for Tactical Superiority (0603043A / Project CV1, Advanced Rotors Applied Technology (0602183A / Project CW3), Holistic Team Survivability (0603465A / Project CG1), and Air Vehicle Improvement & Adv Tech (0603043A / Project DK2).

FY2026 plans — current year Will further develop and integrate tools and methods to improve rotorcraft design and optimization methods; apply to future trade studies to explore rotorcraft concepts in support of Future Vertical Lift, UAS, Contested Logistics, and other emerging concepts including hybrid-electric and electric concepts.

FY2025 accomplishments Will further develop tools and methods for rotorcraft design and optimization methods. Will continue to develop advanced component and cost models for rotary wing and fixed wing aircraft. Will apply tool sets to future air vehicle trade studies to support Future Vertical Lift (FVL), electric Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) and hybrid-electric concepts and will explore concepts for contested logistics.

FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding decrease reflects the strategic reallocation of resources to support evolving priorities and objectives.

FY2026 plans — current year Will apply high-fidelity coupled aeromechanics and flight mechanics analyses over the entire flight envelope, including extreme, high-speed maneuvers, to accurately predict interactional aerodynamic effects on rotor and control loads; develop validated algorithms & models for analyzing complex hub geometries, rotor/propeller-wing interactions, and high-speed rotor stability, and explore application of three-dimensional structural dynamics analysis to advanced FVL-relevant rotor/propeller blades.

FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding decrease reflects the strategic reallocation of resources to support evolving priorities and objectives.

FY2026 plans — current year Will develop novel experimental techniques to collect highly accurate, repeatable, and reliable experimental data necessary to validate simulation models over the entire life cycle to increase confidence in analysis for airworthiness qualification; develop and validate analysis methods for material characterization with static & fatigue test data in conditions required for qualification and explore experimentally validated damage tolerance analysis for rotating components.

FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding decrease reflects the strategic reallocation of resources to support evolving priorities and objectives.

FY2026 plans — current year Will develop & refine comprehensive mission task elements (MTEs) for emerging configurations & future missions such as high-speed transition, maneuvers, and precision tasks, to provide to inform handling qualities requirements through comprehensive analysis & piloted simulation; explore the use of novel computational algorithms, parallel processing and leverage commercial libraries to improve autonomous operations by reducing resource requirements and improving safety considerations.

FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding decrease reflects the strategic reallocation of resources to support evolving priorities and objectives.

FY2026 plans — current year Will investigate and validate mid-wave infrared (MWIR) single-crystalline and glass gain materials with emissions bandwidth appropriate for direct generation of ultrashort pulse outputs with transform limited pulse durations; identify the best femtosecond (fs) pulse amplification strategy to the application-meaningful energy level; conduct open-air ultra-short pulse lasers (USPL) propagation experiments to study effects at range.

FY2025 accomplishments Will design and develop tandem-pumped, high energy pulsed mid-wave infrared (MWIR) laser sources optimized for pulse-burst regime to further minimize laser system SWAP; design and develop direct-diode-pumped, ultra-low SWAP, MWIR laser sources optimized for pulse-burst regime with advanced phase-change cooling; mature wavelength conversion materials and techniques for longwave infrared (LWIR) sources; validate ultra-short pulse lasers (USPL) non-optical effects measurements, such as radio frequency (RF) generation and damage at multiple wavelengths; advance highly sensitive RF detection components conforming to an ultra-low SWaP-C architecture through the incorporation of thin film…

FY2027 planned work Will develop algorithms for multi-target tracking; enhance ability to discriminate between real and false targets; coordinate and validate results with military units during employment at their home station and deployment at training centers; explore low-size, weight, and power (SWAP) photonic integration strategies across alternate sensing and communication components and strategies.

FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding decrease reflects reduction in research supporting launched effects integration in FY 2027.

FY2026 plans — current year Will implement low-cost, size, weight, and power (C-SWAP) multi-modal algorithms to classify and discriminate real versus decoy threat vehicles from both unmanned ground and airborne platforms with focus on new sensing modalities such as passive radio frequency (RF) to increase target detection and classification confidence of vehicles; assess air deployment of ground and relocatable sensors from unmanned fixed wing platforms; coordinate with Army Center partners to exfiltrate target information using long-haul communications; research and implement autonomous integration with launched effect for 'at-the-edge' processing of threat targets; conduct experiments to assess sensor-to-shooter…

FY2025 accomplishments Will develop novel, multi-modal sensor fusion algorithms to detect, locate, and track formations of mechanized vehicles for a small subset of variables; advance cross modal sensing algorithms to enhance classification confidence and detect anomalies; assess autonomy in teaming between unmanned ground sensors and unmanned ground and aerial vehicles in collaboration with Aviation and Missile Center (AvMC); validate the implementation of algorithms on low-size, weight, power, and cost (SWAP-C) sensor platforms for targeting threat vehicles.