What project 624867 buys
This project conducts research in high power electromagnetics (HPEM), which can include high power microwaves (HPM), plasmas, particle beams, and millimeter waves and other unconventional, innovative weapon technologies, to satisfy Department of the Air Force requirements in the following areas: counter unmanned aerial systems (c-UAS), counter intelligence/surveillance/reconnaissance (c-ISR), counter missiles (c-Missile) and counter electronics (c-Electronic) for high-value airborne asset (HVAA) protection, and point defense. This project conducts research to advance the state-of-the-art of HPM sources, antennas, and novel directed energy applications by investigating the effects of HPM weapons on a wide range of systems and components. This project conducts physics-level numerical simulations, modeling, and analysis to inform science and technology investments and for assessing the military utility of HPM systems. This project includes but is not limited to high power microwaves, plasmas, particle beams, and millimeter waves. Technologies developed under this project feed directly into HPM technology demonstrations to graduate the technology to higher technology readiness level (TRL) under Program Element 0603605F / Advanced Weapons Technology, Budget Activity (BA) 2.
Project 624867 funding, FY2025–FY2031
Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure. Projects carry the full five-year plan; the activities inside them stop at the budget year.
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 39.2 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 43.3 |
| FY2027 | Request | 41.0 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 38.9 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 43.1 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 45.2 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 46.6 |
2 accomplishments / planned programs
The R-2A exhibit — the only level of the budget that describes work that has not happened yet. Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only, no five-year plan. 1 of them describes FY2027 work in enough detail to have its own page; the rest are shown here in full. Coverage is partial across the corpus, so count activities, never total them.
In FY 2027 and out, the work associated with the "High Power Microwave Effects” effort will be merged into the "High Power Microwave and Unconventional Weapon Technologies” effort to foster better integration of technologies and effects to enable quicker responsiveness to warfighter needs. Total combined funding for the "High Power…
Read the FY2027 plan →FY2027 planned work In FY 2027 and out, the associated plans and funding with the "High Power Microwave Effects” effort will be merged into the "High Power Microwave and Unconventional Weapon Technologies” effort within this Project to foster better integration of technologies and effects to enable quicker responsiveness to warfighter needs.
FY2026 to FY2027 change FY 2027 funding decreased compared to FY 2026 by $26.001 million due to the transfer of the High Power Microwave Effects effort and associated funding to the High Power Microwave and Unconventional Technologies effort to foster better integration of technologies and effects to enable quicker responsiveness to warfighter needs.
FY2026 plans — current year - Resume work on populating the database of high-power sources to include solid-state sources. Specific test activity includes identifying new targets susceptible to defeat by new high power microwave waveforms and frequencies. - Continue in-house government development to decrease the time required for high fidelity simulations while also reducing the computational processing power required. - Continue advancing, supporting, and transitioning directed energy weapon, modeling, simulation, and analysis for point defense and high-value airborne asset (HVAA) protection tools for the broader modeling, simulation, and analysis wargaming communities, and collaboration with enterprise-level and…