What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 0000 of PE 0602782N. 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 autonomous vehicle development efforts for coupling autonomous vehicles with their sensor payloads. -Continue efforts to characterize flow generated by biomimetic propulsion approaches. -Continue development and demonstration of adaptive control systems for bio-inspired unmanned underwater vehicles advancing oscillating fin propulsor models and embedding these models on vehicle hardware. The objective is to increase vehicle efficiency, maneuverability and sensing effectiveness in complex environments. -Continue MCM sensor development of next-generation small, highly capable MCM sensors. Specific efforts include sensors, electronics, and computing technology. The objective is to increase deployment options for unmanned systems. -Continue Mine & Expeditionary Warfare (Target Recognition and Signal Processing) machine learning algorithm development efforts that yield principled understanding of sensor information content, are robust to challenging operating conditions and produce human-interpretable or traceable predictions. The objective is to improve operator trust in autonomous system behavior and improve automated performance. -Continue development of robotic technologies to respond to detected threats. Specific effort will include dexterity, haptics and algorithms to achieve human-like behaviors. The objective is to sense and interact with the environment and threats. -Continue development of a learning and planning framework, conducting field experiments that demonstrate simultaneous exploration and navigation in an unknown environment while attempting to execute a complex mission. The objective is to improve autonomous search capabilities for unmanned systems. -Continue development of cooperative autonomous underwater vehicle behaviors that adapt to dynamic and uncertain environments. -Continue advanced underwater optical imager technology focusing on laboratory measurements in various turbidity conditions and environments. The objective is to improve optical sensing performance in turbid environments. -Continue efforts that lead to increased vehicle endurance, improved data exfiltration rates, and sophisticated networking capabilities to expand reach. -Continue development of autonomous technologies to detect, classify underwater mobile threats. The objective is to improve the search/localization effectiveness and mission duration of autonomous systems. -Continue development of low Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) neuromorphic computing payloads for mine countermeasure UUVs. The objective is to improve machine learning and autonomy performance for high-data rate sensor inputs on small vehicle form-factors. -Continue Mine Countermeasures (MCM) Data (Mine & Expeditionary Warfare) efforts to aggregate, curate and interrogate real and simulated data sets for in-situ algorithm adaptation, optimization, and performance assessment. The objective is to enable unmanned systems to operate flexibly across a wide range of dynamic and unstructured environments. -Continue applied research efforts and seabed experimentation in shallow and deep waters that yield descriptions and parameterizations of sediments applicable to modern mine warfare systems. The objective is to provide improved environmental descriptors of the seabed environment for planning and operations across all aspects of mine warfare.
Funding increase from FY 2026 to FY 2027 is due to increased research in autonomous vehicle development efforts for coupling autonomous vehicles with their sensor payloads.
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.
-Continue autonomous vehicle development efforts for coupling autonomous vehicles with their sensor payloads. -Continue efforts to characterize flow generated by biomimetic propulsion approaches. -Continue development and demonstration of adaptive control systems for bio-inspired unmanned underwater vehicles advancing oscillating fin propulsor models and embedding these models on vehicle hardware. The objective is to increase vehicle efficiency, maneuverability and sensing effectiveness in complex environments. -Continue MCM sensor development of next-generation small, highly capable MCM sensors. Specific efforts include sensors, electronics, and computing technology. The objective is to increase deployment options for unmanned systems. -Continue Mine & Expeditionary Warfare (Target Recognition and Signal Processing) machine learning algorithm development efforts that yield principled understanding of sensor information content, are robust to challenging operating conditions and produce human-interpretable or traceable predictions. The objective is to improve operator trust in autonomous system behavior and improve automated performance. -Continue development of robotic technologies to respond to detected threats. Specific effort will include dexterity, haptics and algorithms to achieve human-like behaviors. The objective is to sense and interact with the environment and threats. -Continue development of a learning and planning framework, conducting field experiments that demonstrate simultaneous exploration and navigation in an unknown environment while attempting to execute a complex mission. The objective is to improve autonomous search capabilities for unmanned systems. -Continue development of cooperative autonomous underwater vehicle behaviors that adapt to dynamic and uncertain environments. -Continue advanced underwater optical imager technology focusing on laboratory measurements in various turbidity conditions and environments. The objective is to improve optical sensing performance in turbid environments. -Continue efforts that lead to increased vehicle endurance, improved data exfiltration rates, and sophisticated networking capabilities to expand reach. -Continue development of autonomous technologies to detect, classify underwater mobile threats. The objective is to improve the search/localization effectiveness and mission duration of autonomous systems. -Continue development of low Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) neuromorphic computing payloads for mine countermeasure UUVs. The objective is to improve machine learning and autonomy performance for high-data rate sensor inputs on small vehicle form-factors. -Continue Mine Countermeasures (MCM) Data (Mine & Expeditionary Warfare) efforts to aggregate, curate and interrogate real and simulated data sets for in-situ algorithm adaptation, optimization, and performance assessment. The objective is to enable unmanned systems to operate flexibly across a wide range of dynamic and unstructured environments. -Initiate applied research efforts and seabed experimentation in shallow and deep waters that yield descriptions and parameterizations of sediments applicable to modern mine warfare systems. The objective is to provide improved environmental descriptors of the seabed environment for planning and operations across all aspects of mine warfare.
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 | 15.4 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 9.4 |
| FY2027 | Request | 13.2 |
This activity is 53% of project 0000's FY2027 request and 53% of PE 0602782N'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.
4 activities in project 0000
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.