What project DA3 buys
This project funds the Advanced Development portion of the Army Innovation Plan, the Army's investment strategy to rapidly accelerate innovative solutions to challenging Warfighter problems. This project will provide the Army with the most advanced and cutting-edge solutions with the ability to adapt and integrate multi- disciplinary innovative technologies by bridging the interfaces between internal and external efforts for a holistic entry into the acquisition pipeline at the most appropriate milestone. Cross-cutting modernization initiatives leverage strategic partnerships that foster an environment to bring knowledge and expertise to demonstrate innovative technologies that will benefit the warfighter. The pace of advancing technology and the flexibility to respond to cutting-edge technology at the Speed of Innovation, will accelerate the development of unanticipated technology opportunities, and allow the Army to rapidly deliver capabilities to the Soldier. Through the Army's Innovation Oversight Board, the Army senior leadership approves the Innovation projects in the budget year and year of execution based on priority and opportunity, ensuring that innovations have a high potential for filling capability gaps and transitioning to Army S&T projects to inform an optimal technology investment strategy and rapidly deliver capabilities to the Soldier. This project is coordinated with PE 0602002A (Army Agile Innovation and Development-Applied Research) / project DC4 (Army Applied Innovation). Work is performed by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM), Army Artificial Intelligence Integration Center (AI2C), the Engineering Research and Development Center, Space and Missile Defense Technical Center, the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, and the Army Research Laboratory (ARL).
Project DA3 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 | 4.3 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 43.1 |
| FY2027 | Request | 3.3 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 4.1 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 4.6 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 4.9 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 5.1 |
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. Coverage is partial across the corpus, so count activities, never total them.
FY2027 planned work Will mature and demonstrate technologies developed by university-led research through experimentation and Soldier engagement in areas such as weapons systems, autonomy, Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR), logistics, and Soldier-enabling systems.
FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding decrease reflects the strategic reallocation of resources to support evolving priorities and objectives.
FY2026 plans — current year Will evaluate and demonstrate innovative technologies that expedite the transition of capabilities, enabling swift modernization; concentrate on transformational technologies, shifting the emphasis towards the design of the Army in 2040.
FY2025 accomplishments The Army seeks to assess and demonstrate innovative technology that accelerate transition of capabilities that will allow for rapid modernization. Proposal topics focus on transformational technologies with a shift in focus to the design of the Army of 2040; improve Command and Control applications through demonstration and optimization of software tools and automated workflows improving performance and reducing human workloads; design and develop a Command and Control architecture to inform future fielding.
FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding decrease reflects the strategic reallocation of resources to support evolving priorities and objectives.
FY2026 plans — current year Will mature and demonstrate technologies originating from or through university-led research that have matured to or near a commercial use that has the potential for breakthrough or dual-use capability to significantly advance military applications in priority or directed transformation areas such as weapon systems, human machine interface, Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR), logistics, and Soldier enabling systems; prototype university technologies for field testing and validation.