What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project BC9 of PE 0603118A. 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.
Will demonstrate robust head tracking estimation when displaying augmented reality. Will validate image processing techniques providing reduced overall power requirements for heads up displays. Will optimize advanced threat cueing modules for display on devices that are not co-located for improved distribution of situational awareness and target handoff supporting advanced teaming for the forward observer. Will mature and demonstrate a very low SWaP, Soldier-borne acoustic sensing capability needed to detect emerging threats, to including unmanned aerial assets. Will mature technologies for optical disruption of unmanned aerial assets using a rifle mounted system. Will demonstrate covert target pointing to reduce Soldier signature during target handoff scenarios. Will validate and demonstrate an advanced aided sensing methodology with demonstration of prioritized targeting using aim augmentation to provide the dismounted Soldier with increased situational awareness and lethality. Will mature advanced sensors for fire control solutions to provide augmented view of the battlefield to the Soldier. Will integrate Soldier mission command systems with threat sensors, unmanned systems, tactical networks, tactical data sources and intelligent systems to provide the Small Unit leader with actionable information to enhance their decision dominance and situational awareness during combat operations. Will mature and demonstrate multi-agent control applications for Army Squad and Platoon level Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) and technologies to enable collaborative autonomy between SUAS in denied, degraded, intermittent and limited (DDIL) environments.
Increase represents efforts to mature advanced sensors for fire control solutions.
FY2025–FY2026: what came before
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.
Will mature methodologies and techniques to enable robust head tracking estimation when displaying augmented reality; demonstrate methodologies and techniques through Soldier feedback; optimize processing techniques to reduce overall power requirements for heads up displays; mature and demonstrate advanced threat cueing modules for display on devices that are not co-located for improved distribution of situational awareness and target handoff; mature and demonstrate a modular payload for dismounted hostile fire detection on robotic platforms; optimize covert target pointing to reduce Soldier signature during target handoff scenarios; optimize modular payloads for unmanned aerial assets to track and geolocate mobile targets while on the move, at tactical ranges; optimize aided sensing methodology in a laboratory environment to improve situational awareness for the dismounted Soldier.
Demonstrate next generation heads up display and algorithms with improved performance under more robust tactical operations; demonstrate advanced threat cueing modules for detection of concealed threats and reduced time to acquire; optimize display and control of small aerial platform within heads-up display system for improved situational awareness during unmanned teaming; optimize sensor configurations for small aerial platforms with embedded aided target recognition and autonomy; demonstrate final design concept and performance for optimized dismounted hostile fire detection as validation of User expectations; validate improved head and weapon orientation sensing for covert target engagement; and validate tracking accuracy of mobile targets on the move at tactical ranges to proliferate accurate situational awareness real-time at all echelons.
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 | 19.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 25.7 |
| FY2027 | Request | 34.3 |
This activity is 70% of project BC9's FY2027 request and 27% of PE 0603118A'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.
2 activities in project BC9
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.