What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 622405 of PE 0602203F. 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.
Continue development and demonstration of advanced, high-speed engine components. Activities include: -Advancing efficient combustor designs, evaluating inlet/isolator and nozzle performance and integration, and developing power-thermal-management solutions that enhance system durability leading to reduced design and manufacturing complexity, and minimizing operational costs. Continue development of flame stabilization devices, instrumentation, endothermic fuels, and flight test engine components. Activities include: -Enhancing combustion system performance through evaluation of combustor operation, development of high-fidelity diagnostic tools, and optimization of fuel choices to balance performance, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. Continue development of design and analysis techniques and tools as well as experimental approaches. Activities include: -Wind tunnel testing with accurate thrust measurements for validation and developing analytical models that improve prediction and lower testing expenses to enhance aerodynamic performance and affordability. Continue critical technology maturation for high speed and hypersonic propulsion systems with primary emphasis on affordable, durable, survivable platforms/systems. Activities include: -Validate advanced modeling, simulation and analysis (MS&A) techniques leading to improved predictive accuracy and reduced development costs; -Assess engine operability and performance across wider Mach number regimes for higher efficiency and stability; and -Enhance propulsive-system durability and power-thermal-management capability to support reliable, affordable high-speed operation. Continue advanced material, structural interaction, and aerodynamic propulsion integration evaluations. Activities include: -Conducting environmental and structural stress tests of advanced materials to improve thermal-management efficiency and support reusable, cost-effective repeatable and manufacturable structures; -Refining boundary-layer and transition modeling to enhance external-heating aerodynamic performance; -Advancing fluid-thermal-structural interaction modeling to boost durability and reduce lifecycle costs; and -Performing high-fidelity store-separation analyses that improve safety, predictability, and overall system efficiency. In FY 2027, the funding and technical activities from High-Speed Vehicle Aeromechanics Technology Development were realigned to High-Speed Propulsion Technology Development effort within this Project. Continue development of multi-disciplinary design and analysis techniques and tools with emphasis on the digital engineering environment for high-speed propulsion system design. Activities include: -Executing detailed trade-off studies and high-fidelity digital modeling to assess how vehicle geometry, trajectory, and mission performance influence high-speed propulsion system efficiency, operability, affordability, and reusability. Continue investigation of advanced propulsion technologies to extend system range through improvement of system lift/drag ratio and maintain robust stability and control at all flight conditions. Activities include: -Ground testing of advanced control-surface concepts to validate analytical models and assess the impact of thermal deformation on high-speed vehicle controllability, contributing to the development of durable, affordable, and reusable designs. Continue investigation of computational and ground based experimental approaches to improve air induction systems over a wide range of flight conditions. Activities include: -Developing and testing variable-geometry inlet concepts to improve propulsion efficiency and high-speed performance; and -Performing wind-tunnel experiments and thermo-structural testing to validate durability, affordability, and potential reusable system designs.
FY 2027 funding increased compared to FY 2026 by $73.970 million due to the transfer of the High-Speed Vehicle Aeromechanics Technology Development effort and associated funding within this Project; and increased emphasis on propulsion wind tunnel tests to enable affordable, exquisite, and reusable hypersonic capabilities at pace required to meet National Hypersonic strategy.
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.
Continue development and demonstration of advanced, high-speed engine components; -Activities include combustor design development and evaluation, inlet/isolator evaluation, nozzle evaluation and thermal management. Continue development of low internal drag flame stabilization devices, instrumentation, endothermic fuels, and flight test engine components; -Activities include combustor operability evaluation, combustion diagnostics development, and fuel evaluations. Continue development of design and analysis techniques and tools as well as experimental approaches; -Activities include wind tunnel testing, thrust measurements, and analytical model development. Continue critical technology maturation for high speed and hypersonic propulsion systems with primary emphasis on durable, survivable platforms/systems; -Activities include validated modeling, simulation, and analysis (MS&A) techniques, engine operability and performance over expanded flight Mach number ranges, propulsive system durability, and thermal management. Commence propulsion studies and design efforts required for the development and demonstration of an engine flight test that expands the flight environment of current high-speed propulsion systems; -Activities include active engine controls component development and demonstration. Commence work previously planned in High-Speed Vehicle Aeromechanics Technology Development effort for advanced material, structural interaction, and aerodynamic evaluations. -Activities include advanced material testing for thermal management, boundary layer / transition modeling for external heating aero, fluid-thermal-structural interaction modeling and evaluation, and store separation modeling and analyses.
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) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 0.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 17.0 |
| FY2027 | Request | 90.9 |
This activity is 58% of project 622405's FY2027 request and 23% of PE 0602203F'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.
3 activities in project 622405
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.