# Sensing Autonomy

**R-2A activity** of project 626095 — Sensor Fusion Technology  
**Program element:** 0602204F — Aerospace Sensors  
**Component:** U.S. Air Force · **Budget Activity:** 2  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602204F/626095/a2  
**Parent:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602204F/626095

## Summary

This activity requests $14.6M in FY2027, 42% of project 626095, up 18% on FY2026. The R-2A exhibit describes it across FY2026–FY2027, including what the FY2027 money is planned to buy.

## What the FY2027 request buys

**FY2027 planned work.** - Continue applying research to autonomy techniques for mission resource management, command & control, sense making, resource planning, and mission orchestration. - Continue applied research in direct support of systems of systems programs. - Continue to accomplish performance understanding through simulation, demonstration, and blended simulation/live testing (multiple vehicles & sensors); develop additional functionality, especially dynamic geometric collaborative uncrewed aerial vehicle behaviors. - Continue expanding the capabilities and scope of computational efficiency of on-board reasoning for tactical-edge sensing autonomy beyond specific high value airborne targets to improve prosecution of a broader set of air and surface targets. - Continue research in foundational knowledge of management algorithms for battlespace awareness incorporating interacting air/ ground targets, air/air targets, and air/surface targets, and operationally representative contingencies. - Continue investigations of algorithms to perform information reasoning and continue to evolve forms of representations and combined representations and reasoning approaches. - Continue investigation of lightweight, low-power computational methods for edge computing solutions; to include neural emulation, cognitive processing, and machine learning techniques. - Continue to further applied research on the algorithmic tracking of multiple interacting targets across domains, environments, and operationally relevant contingencies. - Continue simulation scenarios/tests with uncrewed aerial vehicles, sensors, and various operating conditions. - Continue applied research with uncrewed aerial vehicles swarming technology for additional functionality. - Continue the use of natural language processing to extract activities from reports and other digitized information. - Commence development of assessment tools specifically for sensing autonomy, a subset of learning systems—software that learns and adapts for diverse applications. - Commence implementation of standards and guidelines for continuous verification and validation for sensing autonomy systems - Commence implementation of expected adversary-induced environments into simulation scenarios/test with uncrewed aerial vehicles, sensors, and various operating conditions.

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** FY 2027 decreased compared to FY 2026 by $2.276 million due to a reduction in the development of assessment and simulation of mission orchestration tools. This reduction is the result of a strategic realignment of the Department of the Air Force's Science and Technology (DAF S&T) portfolio, which aims to optimize core research areas and improve resource efficiency.

## Before the request year

**FY2026 plans — current year.** - Continue applying research to autonomy techniques for mission resource management, command & control, sense making, resource planning, and mission orchestration. - Continue applied research in direct support of systems of systems programs. - Continue to accomplish performance understanding through simulation, demonstration, and blended simulation/live testing (multiple vehicles & sensors); develop additional functionality, especially dynamic geometric collaborative uncrewed aerial vehicle behaviors. - Continue expanding the capabilities and scope of computational efficiency of on-board reasoning for tactical-edge sensing autonomy beyond specific high value airborne targets to improve prosecution of a broader set of air and surface targets. - Continue research in foundational knowledge of management algorithms for battlespace awareness incorporating interacting air/ground targets, air/air targets, and air/surface targets, and operationally representative contingencies. - Continue investigations of algorithms to perform information reasoning and continue to evolve forms of representations and combined representations and reasoning approaches. - Continue investigation of lightweight, low-power computational methods for edge computing solutions; to include neural emulation, cognitive processing, and machine learning techniques. - Commence further applied research on the algorithmic tracking of multiple interacting targets across domains, environments, and operationally relevant contingencies. - Commence simulation scenarios/tests with uncrewed aerial vehicles, sensors, and various operating conditions. - Commence applied research with uncrewed aerial vehicles swarming technology for additional functionality. - Commence the use of natural language processing to extract activities from reports.

## Funding

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 4.7 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 12.3 |
| FY2027 | Request | 14.6 |

> Prior, current and budget year only — an R-2A activity carries no five-year plan. It sums exactly into its project in the request year and not necessarily in any other.

## Other activities in project 626095

- [Applied Multi-Domain Sense Making](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602204F/626095/a0) — FY2027 20.0
- Multi-Domain Sensing Effects and Analysis — FY2027 0.0
- Cyber Physical Sensing — FY2027 0.0

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Department of the Air Force RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibit R-2A, PE 0602204F project 626095 (PB PB2027). Narrative is the government's own text.
- **No marks, no contractors at this grain** — congressional marks land on the program element and R-3 performers on the project.
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_activity`.

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