# Project 625173 — Laser Technology

**Program element:** 0602605F — Directed Energy Technology  
**Project:** 625173  
**Component:** U.S. Air Force  
**Appropriation:** 3600 — RDT&E, Air Force  
**Budget Activity:** 2 — Applied Research  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602605F/625173  
**Parent:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602605F

## Summary

Project 625173 — Laser Technology requests $50.8M in FY2027, 55% of the $91.8M requested for program element 0602605F, down 3.8% on FY2026. 1 R-2A activity decomposes the request.

## Funding profile

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 46.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 52.8 |
| FY2027 | Request | 50.8 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 53.4 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 58.0 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 59.9 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 61.6 |

> Estimate types are not summed. This project is one leaf of PE 0602605F; the PE total is the sum of its projects, never added to them.

## What project 625173 buys

This project conducts research to advance the state-of-the-art in continuous wave (CW) and pulsed laser sources, optical beam combination techniques, optical beam control technologies, optical beam propagation methodologies, lethality enhancement techniques via laser effect testing, and the integration of these technologies into laboratory-level system demonstration packages for Air Force applications such as counter unmanned aerial systems (c-UAS), counter intelligence/ surveillance/reconnaissance (c-ISR), and counter missiles (c-Missile) for high value airborne asset (HVAA) protection, and point defense. This project conducts modeling, simulation, and analysis to guide science and technology investments and for assessing the military utility of the technologies being developed. Technologies developed under this project feed directly into laser system technology demonstrations to graduate the technology to a higher technology readiness level (TRL) under Program Element 0603605F / Advanced Weapons Technology, Project 633151 / Directed Energy Technology Development, Budget Activity (BA) 2.

## Activities (R-2A) — 1

| Activity | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 | Move | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laser Technology | 46.0 | 48.8 | 50.8 | +4% | [a0](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602605F/625173/a0) |

> Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. In the request year they partition this project exactly; in earlier years they can under-cover it.

### Laser Technology

-Continue in-house development, validation, and transition of predictive, high-fidelity multi-physics modeling tools required to optimize laser weapon system design concepts. Activities include: validating and deploying models, developing the modeling tools needed to support future laser weapon system capability demonstrations, and…

Full year-by-year narrative: https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602605F/625173/a0

## What is NOT on this page

Congressional marks, the R-2 mission description and acquisition strategy, the industry vs government split of the whole request, and related program elements are recorded at **program-element** grain — an NDAA mark lands on a PE, never on a project. They are at https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602605F.

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Department of the Air Force RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibits R-2/R-2A/R-3, PE 0602605F project 625173 (PB PB2027).
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_program_element(pe="0602605F")`.

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