What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 623360 of PE 0602336F. 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 developing foundational nuclear re-entry system Modeling & Simulation (M&S) tools that support advanced Aeroshell efforts within PE 0603273F, S&T for Nuclear Re-entry Systems. - Continue aerothermal model validation and improvements to include the development of integrated, comprehensive physics-based modeling suites to predict aerodynamic flow fields, signatures, and material characterizations. - Continue enhancing plasma chemistry modeling fidelity through machine learning models and computational chemistry. - Continue developing computational tools for predicting physics-based effects that result in leading-edge shape change of hypersonic vehicles. - Continue weather effects computational tests on nuclear re-entry vehicles and catalogue validating data for M&S tools. - Continue generating new algorithms for predicting nuclear re-entry vehicle responses to extreme or inclement weather in lower atmosphere environments. - Continue analyzing strategic command, control, and communications to identify critical multi-domain technologies. - Continue developing M&S algorithms to inform and support test and integration plans for hypersonic re-entry flight tests containing government payloads. - Continue developing M&S algorithms to inform the selection of hypersonic payload technologies (e.g., inertial sensors, millimeter-wave communications, spectral and hyperspectral sensors, and heatshield materials) for technology maturation opportunities in future flight tests. - Continue validating computational results of hypersonic aerothermal chemistry and shock-layer behavior with experimental re-entry flight test data. - Commence select terminal performance studies and early technology development through fundamental and applied research to advance PE 0603273F, Science and Technology (S&T) for Nuclear Re-entry Systems enhanced terminal performance activities. - Commence the development of experimental impact fuze technologies to ensure proper system execution for varying and unique scenario target impacts as well as identifying early integration opportunities. - Commence the procurement of material samples and supporting laboratory experimentation to systematically supplement existing nuclear re-entry system materials databases for enhanced terminal performance. - Commence investigations into sourcing options for outer aeroshell materials and future Government Reference Design (GRD) components. - Commence computational material requirement studies to predict combined environment effects. - Commence investigation of environmental effects test campaign to evaluate materials performance in relevant combined environments. - Commence designing experiments for radiation effects across critical nuclear re-entry system components.
This effort increases by $22.011 million from FY 2026 to FY 2027 to expand and accelerate applied research activities aiding and informing developmental efforts performed within PE 0603273F, S&T for Nuclear Re-entry Systems. This growth in budget will ensure S&T for Nuclear Re-entry Systems remains on schedule with the joint Department of the Air Force (DAF) and U.S. Navy 25-year roadmap established in accordance with strategic guidance provided by the Office of the Undersecretary of War (OUSW) for Research and Engineering (R&E) in FY 2023. The funding will support studies and early development of Aeroshell material options for future re-entry vehicles; evaluation of materials performance in relevant environments; and the initiation of terminal performance studies informing future re-entry vehicle design.
FY2026: the year under way
Prior-year accomplishments and current-year plans from the same exhibit. Context for the FY2027 plan, not a series — an activity partitions its project exactly in the request year, but can under-cover it in earlier years.
FY 2026 RAS plans were previously accounted for within the Nuclear Technologies effort of this PE encompassing work in aerothermodynamic analyses of re-entry systems.
Three years, and no five-year plan
An R-2A activity publishes the prior year, the current year and the budget year. The FYDP outyears exist at project and program-element level and are deliberately absent here rather than inferred. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure.
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | Enacted | 0.0 |
| FY2027 | Request | 22.0 |
This activity is 81% of project 623360's FY2027 request and 81% of PE 0602336F'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.
2 activities in project 623360
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 program-element page.