What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 625171 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 to devise, synthesize, scale-up, test, and characterize novel energetic ingredients for efficient propulsion capabilities for solid rocket motors, rocket engines and related propulsion systems. Activities include: -Integration of advanced propellant manufacturing techniques and components into tactical-size motors for validation through ground test. Continue to evaluate solid and liquid rocket propellants for propulsion capabilities for DoD. Activities include: -Evaluating and selecting chemical formulations that have demonstrated success for further testing in a scaled-up hot-fire test environment. Continue to identify, evaluate, and adapt 21st century automated formulation and production techniques to enable more rapid and agile munitions. Activities include: -Development and testing of chemical binder and energetic material in collaboration with mission partners for use in three-dimensional printing and curing of propellant. Continue research of high-temperature resins, insulators, and composite case fabrication techniques to enable high performance rocket motor cases. Activities include: -Refinement and scale-up of techniques for applying fiber motor casing for use in sub-scale and tactical-size rocket motors. Continue to apply the next generation of chemical and mechanical aging mechanism Modeling Simulation and Analysis (MS&A) tools supporting weapon lifetimes and fleet reliability. Activities include: -Refinement, verification, and validation of models evaluating service life for military utility. Continue development of advanced tactical propulsion hardware for efficient propulsion capabilities for solid rocket motors, rocket engines, and related propulsion systems. Activities include: -Scale-up to flight-weight demonstration testing of tactical solid rocket motors. Continue development, evaluation, verification, and validation of next generation of physics-based MS&A tools to enable rapid and agile missile propulsion design, analysis, and production. Activities include: -Optimizing digital tools using hot-fire test data Complete support of advanced component technologies for rocket propulsion applications enabling development of strategic and strike systems. Activities include: -Evaluation of propellant properties for strategic systems. Complete automated solid rocket motor production techniques and components to enable more rapid and agile munitions production and logistic support. Activities include: -Verification of automated, sub-scale manufacturing techniques and validation through hot-fire testing Commence research and development of advanced materials and components for strategic systems development. Activities include: -Design, testing, and build of test and evaluation systems supporting strategic system iterative development
FY 2027 increased compared to FY 2026 by $0.713 million due to additional propellant cost associated with larger batch sizes when increasing from sub-scale to tactical size motors, as well as additional test and evaluation of these propellants.
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 to devise, synthesize, scale-up, test, and characterize novel energetic ingredients for efficient propulsion capabilities for solid rocket motors, rocket engines and related propulsion systems; -Activities include demonstration of propellant micro-reactors, binder testing for printed applications, and tactical-size motor hotfires to demonstrate integrated components. Continue to evaluate solid and liquid rocket propellants for propulsion capabilities for DoD; -Activities include applied chemical formulation, scale-up, and testing. Continue to identify, evaluate, and adapt 21st century automated formulation and production techniques to enable more rapid and agile munitions; -Activities include development of new chemical binder and energetic material for three-dimensional printing. Continue research in high-temperature resins, insulators, and composite case fabrication techniques to enable high performance rocket motor cases; -Activities include testing of grain-wound carbon fiber motor case. Continue to apply the next generation of chemical and mechanical aging mechanism Modeling Simulation and Analysis (MS&A) tools supporting weapon lifetimes and fleet reliability; -Activities include service life evaluation support for weapon systems. Continue the development of advanced tactical propulsion hardware for efficient propulsion capabilities for solid rocket motors, rocket engines and related propulsion systems; -Activities include support of flight demonstration tests of solid rocket motors. Continue the development, evaluation, verification, and validation of next generation of physics-based MS&A tools to enable rapid and agile missile propulsion design, analysis, and production; -Activities include digital performance evaluations supporting hotfire tests. Continue to support the advanced component technologies for missile propulsion applications supporting development of strategic and strike systems; -Activities include propellant testing and silo firing calculations. Continue automated solid rocket motor production techniques and components to enable more rapid and agile munitions production and logistic support. -Activities include evaluation and validation of on-site solid rocket motor material testing.
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 | 34.2 |
| FY2027 | Request | 34.9 |
This activity is 100% of project 625171's FY2027 request and 8.8% 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 625171
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.