What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 627622 of PE 0602204F. 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 deployment of passive sensing techniques for detecting, geolocating, and characterizing signals of interest onto advanced multifunction systems targeted to small and large platforms - Continue development of multifunction, wideband radio frequency sensor payloads using scalable, open system architectures and commercially available International Traffic in Arms Regulations products. - Continue scalable mode development for low cost, size, weight, and power multifunction arrays to support Autonomous Collaborative Platform mission payloads. - Complete advanced mode development for multi-beam and multi-function digital arrays, implementing more complex modes and advanced waveforms with applications for Advanced Early Warning radar. - Complete development of modes using standardized interfaces and utilizing hardware architectures representative of emerging Department of the Air Force systems. - Complete development of techniques for analysis of complex active electronically scanned arrays on large platforms. - Complete investigation of emerging receiver technology such as quantum enabled receivers. - Commence system design studies for scaling of large platform multifunction aperture (MFA) capabilities to cost, size, weight, and power constrained platforms. - Commence integrating advanced MFA modes, large-scale digital beamforming (DBF), and novel waveforms utilizing government reference architectures to enable third-party capability demonstrations and enhanced radar functionality
FY 2027 decreased compared to FY 2026 by $2.597 million due to a reduction in the development of multi-band and multi-beam forming technologies. 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.
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 advanced mode development for multi-beam and multi-function digital arrays, implementing more complex modes and advanced waveforms with applications for Advanced Early Warning radar. - Continue development of modes using standardized interfaces and utilizing hardware architectures representative of emerging Department of the Air Force systems. - Continue development of techniques for analysis of complex active electronically scanned arrays on large platforms. - Continue investigation of emerging receiver technology such as quantum enabled receivers. - Complete migration of mode implementation from custom interfaces to Department of War and Department of the Air Force standardized interfaces. - Complete integration of additively manufactured antennas and radar backend components to demonstrate low-cost, wide bandwidth, scalable, and conformal phased array antennas for uncrewed sensing platforms. - Complete analysis identifying performance bounds and requirements for low-cost radio frequency sensors in selected mission scenarios. - Commence deployment of passive sensing techniques for detecting, geolocating, and characterizing signals of interest onto advanced multifunction systems targeted to small and large platforms - Commence development of multifunction, wideband radio frequency sensor payloads using scalable, open system architectures and commercially available International Traffic in Arms Regulations products. - Commence scalable mode development for low cost, size, weight, and power multifunction arrays to support Autonomous Collaborative Platform mission payloads.
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 | 14.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 22.2 |
| FY2027 | Request | 19.6 |
This activity is 37% of project 627622's FY2027 request and 12% of PE 0602204F'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.
5 activities in project 627622
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.