What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 1507 of PE 0602750N. 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 performing a Mission Engineering Analysis and Operational Analysis (OA) to inform mission-level performance requirements. - Continue performing aerodynamic/thermal trajectory modeling and simulation to inform system materials capability and vehicle trajectory requirements. - Continue executing applied research and prototype testing of program-identified Critical Technology Enablers (CTEs). - Complete performing system engineering analyses to develop system functional and performance requirements. - Complete establishing and managing requirements baseline. - Complete performing system requirements decomposition to subsystems. - Complete performing a System Requirements and Design Review (SRDR). - Complete performing a Preliminary Design Review (PDR). - Initiate analytical studies and computational modeling to establish proof-of-concept for novel, high-performance aerodynamic shapes and control surface functions. - Initiate Hypersonic wind tunnel test campaigns to validate analytical predictions of aerodynamic and aerothermal characteristics for representative vehicle configurations. - Initiate analytical studies to evaluate the feasibility of innovative, high-temperature structural and thermal protection system (TPS) concepts and materials. - Initiate high temperature ground test campaigns (i.e. arc jets and plasma torches) to validate TPS materials in a relevant environment. - Initiate modeling and simulation to demonstrate proof-of-concept for the fundamental performance of advanced control actuation system components and high-temperature seals. - Initiate proof-of-concept design on thermal battery power supply and validation in a laboratory environment. - Initiate analytical and laboratory studies to identify and characterize advanced instrumentation and sensor technologies for future testing requirements. - Initiate analytical studies to increase manufacturability and lower costs associated with fabrication, integration and deployment of FLASH vehicle.
The increase in funding from FY 2026 to FY 2027 reflects the program's planned maturation from computational analysis to ground test. The FY 2027 budget enables the critical next step of applied research: the design, fabrication, and detailed testing of physical hardware. This funding supports resource-intensive activities including hypersonic wind tunnel campaigns and extensive laboratory testing of key vehicle elements such as high-temperature structural components, thermal protection systems, and advanced control actuation systems. This investment in physical testing is required to validate analytical models and provides the necessary empirical data and risk reduction to mature the critical technologies required for the full-scale flight demonstration vehicle.
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.
Business Area 2 -Perform a Mission Engineering Analysis and Operational Analysis (OA) to inform mission level performance requirements -Perform aerodynamic/thermal trajectory modeling and simulation to inform system materials capability and vehicle trajectory requirements -Execute applied research and prototype testing of program identified Critical Technology Enablers (CTEs) Business Area 3 -Perform system engineering analyses to develop system functional and performance requirements -Establish and manage requirements baseline -Perform system requirements decomposition to subsystems -Perform a System Requirements and Design Review (SRDR)
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 | 0.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 14.8 |
| FY2027 | Request | 34.0 |
This activity is 81% of project 1507's FY2027 request and 11% of PE 0602750N'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.
3 activities in project 1507
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.