R-2A Activity · President's Budget PB2027

Warhead Technologies

FY2027 Request
$10.4M
▼ 9.6% vs FY2026
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This activity requests $10.4M in FY2027, 19% of project 622502, down 9.6% on FY2026. The R-2A exhibit describes it across FY2026–FY2027, including what the FY2027 money is planned to buy.

FY2027 Request
$10.4M
▼ 9.6% vs FY2026
FY2026 Enacted
$11.5M
▼ 1.9% vs FY2025
FY2025 Actual
$11.7M
Prior year
Planned work

What the FY2027 request buys

Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 622502 of PE 0602602F. 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.

FY2027 planned work

- Continue maturation of small, multi-output warhead technologies for soft-surface targets, to include limited penetration capability of surface-hardened structures and maritime targets, enabling more weapons on carrier per sortie while sustaining or enhancing lethality. Activities include developing models for water impact and stability. - Continue evolving test capabilities to enhance accuracy of the models for mechanical response under high-rate, high-pressure loading conditions that are used in high-fidelity modeling and simulation tools, to include materials used in additive manufacturing processes enabling digital engineering of warhead concepts. Activities include develop models for water impact, stability and energy coupling that feed lethality models. - Continue developing warhead additive manufacturing techniques and produce optimized sub-scale articles for test. Expand material selections through partnerships within DoW supporting warhead application developments in air-delivered weapons. Activities include exploring new material compositions for additive manufacturing, designed and test new materials to include casting, powder, and other designs. - Continue demonstration of technologies for effective and survivable high-speed penetration, specifically focusing on maritime and surface targets relevant to Joint Warfighting Concept in all domains, supporting discovery and development of defined requirements for warhead to function in each of the maritime scenarios. Activities include, develop models for water impact and stability. - Continue development of warhead concepts for the air targets in peer engagement scenarios, focusing on innovative warhead concepts development for weapons that maximize weapon lethality for all engagement scenarios. Activities Include, provide external customers with multi-capable munition designs for maritime targets. - Continue research and development of cumulative damage mechanisms taking advantage of coordinated and distributed impact, focusing on cumulative damage mechanisms development in maritime targets. Activities include develop models for water impact and stability. - Continue subsystem warhead technology integration, focusing on optimized warhead technology integration through development, application, and refinement of digital engineering and model-based engineering architectures and tools. Activities include designing warheads in computer-aided design (CAD) tools and digitally designing warheads across all scenarios. - Continue rapid-design and modular warhead with DoW partner, focusing on innovative warhead concepts development for weapons that maximize weapon lethality for all engagement scenarios. Activities include developing quick reaction modular design to meet reduction in user defined requirements and design of low cost, high quantity munitions in rapid design/test.

FY2026 to FY2027 change

FY 2027 decreased compared to FY 2026 by $1.102 million due to decreased emphasis on advanced penetrating weapon warhead technologies.

Before the request year

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.

FY2026 plans — current year

- Continue maturation of small, multi-output warhead technologies for soft-surface targets, to include limited penetration capability of surface-hardened structures and maritime targets, enabling more weapons on carrier per sortie while sustaining or enhancing lethality. - Continue evolving test capabilities to enhance quantification of the mechanical response under high-rate, high-pressure loading conditions for use in high-fidelity modeling and simulation tools, to include materials used in additive manufacturing processes, enabling digital engineering of warhead concepts. - Continue developing warhead additive manufacturing techniques and produce optimized sub-scale articles for test. Expand material selections through partnerships within DoW supporting warhead application developments in air-delivered weapons. - Continue demonstration of technologies for effective and survivable high-speed penetration, specifically focusing on maritime and surface targets relevant to Joint Warfighting Concept in all domains, supporting discovery and development of defined requirements for warhead to function in each of the maritime scenarios. - Continue development of warhead concepts for the air targets in peer engagement scenarios, focusing on innovative warhead concepts development for weapons that maximize weapon lethality for all engagement scenarios. - Continue research and development of cumulative damage mechanisms taking advantage of coordinated and distributed impact, focusing on cumulative damage mechanisms development in maritime targets. - Continue subsystem technology integration into warheads for maritime target engagements, focusing on optimized warhead technology integration through development, application, and refinement of digital engineering and model-based engineering architectures and tools. - Commence rapid-design and modular warhead into low-cost cruise missile concepts with DoW partner, focusing on innovative warhead concepts development for weapons that maximize weapon lethality for all engagement scenarios.

Money

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.

011.7FY25ACTUAL11.5FY26ENACTED10.4FY27REQUEST
Actual Enacted Request
Fiscal YearEstimate TypeAmount ($M)
FY2025Actual11.7
FY2026Enacted11.5
FY2027Request10.4

This activity is 19% of project 622502's FY2027 request and 8.0% of PE 0602602F'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.

Where this sits

4 activities in project 622502

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.

Ordnance Technologies$30.7M ▼ 10%
Warhead Technologies — this activity$10.4M ▼ 10%
Fuze Technologies$7.4M ▼ 10%
Energetic Materials Technology$7.2M ▼ 10%
Source
FY2027 Department of the Air Force RDT&E Budget Justification · Exhibit R-2A · PE 0602602F, project 622502 (President's Budget PB2027). Congressional marks are recorded on the program element, never on an activity.
Machine access
Markdown twin /programs/0602602F/622502/a2.md · MCP mcp.hitchintel.combudget_get_activity