# Joint Capability Development Environment (JCDE)

**R-2A activity** of project 124 — Advanced Analysis and Capability Development  
**Program element:** 0603142D8Z — Mission Engineering and Integration (ME&I)  
**Component:** Defense-Wide · **Budget Activity:** 3  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603142D8Z/124/a3  
**Parent:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603142D8Z/124

## Summary

This activity requests $49.9M in FY2027, 100% of project 124, down 4.5% on FY2026. The R-2A exhibit describes it across FY2025–FY2027, including what the FY2027 money is planned to buy.

## What the FY2027 request buys

**FY2027 planned work.** • Increase the availability of tools and enhance the performance of the JCDE infrastructure to accommodate new users, expand secure connectivity, deploy to new government and industry sites, and meet growing data processing demands. • Expand the JCDE boundary by integrating with the High-Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP). • Expand the JCDE and SAFE-SiM user base and extend support to additional Combatant Commands to address critical mission requirements. • Continue to enhance the SMART-KM knowledge repository by populating and curating data and models, including expansion to other Combatant Commands. • Promulgate additional training and familiarization courses for JCDE and SAFE-SiM across the DoW and its innovation ecosystem. • Continue to develop, integrate, and test new advanced plug-ins and tools. • Establish a Data and Model Configuration Control Board to verify and adjudicate model pedigree and tagging, including security, Intellectual Property (IP), and data rights. • Enhance cloud service offerings by expanding the dedicated circuit to increase speed and compute resources.

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** Decrease in RDT&E, DW for $2.364 million for savings and efficiencies resulting from SAFE-SiM transitioning out of DARPA to OUSW (R&E).

## Before the request year

**FY2026 plans — current year.** • Establish technical processes for defining, documenting, developing, curating, and maintaining the modeling, simulation, and analysis (MS&A) tools used by government, academia, industry, and international partners within the JCDE. • Scale JCDE by planning and establishing a virtual private network (VPN) over JWICS for remote desktop access and access to additional High-Performance Computing (HPC) resources to include Authority to Connect to MSIE. • Establish new JCDE nodes and sites by expanding its infrastructure to Government facilities, such as the USINDOPACOM Vanguard Force Command Capability (VFCC). • Continue the research and development of MSIE hardware, SAFE-SiM, and Smart KM software, along with rigorous processes to scale all-domain scenario modeling and analyses that integrate higher levels of fidelity and resolution. • Expand the availability of this capability to additional users from Services, Agencies, and Industry across classified networks through increased connectivity, with the ability to extend infrastructure to different sites. • Develop, mature, and maintain multi-level security capabilities throughout the ecosystem and enhance the knowledge repository (Smart KM) with curated models linked to fully informed threat, scenario, and technology information. • Integrate new toolsets and visualizations within SAFE-SiM, including Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) capabilities. • Build out content for priority threat environments and missions, beginning with the USEUCOM threat environment as a sandbox for COCOM concept development and continuing with priority USINDOPACOM scenarios.

**FY2025 accomplishments.** Not applicable.

## Funding

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | Enacted | 52.2 |
| FY2027 | Request | 49.9 |

> Prior, current and budget year only — an R-2A activity carries no five-year plan. It sums exactly into its project in the request year and not necessarily in any other.

## Other activities in project 124

- Joint Lethality Engineering (formerly designated as Advanced Concept Development) — FY2027 0.0
- Advanced Modeling and Simulation (M&S) Technology and Tool Development — FY2027 —
- Modeling and Simulation Big Play — FY2027 —
- Mission Engineering and Integration — FY2027 —

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Office of the Secretary of Defense RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibit R-2A, PE 0603142D8Z project 124 (PB PB2027). Narrative is the government's own text.
- **No marks, no contractors at this grain** — congressional marks land on the program element and R-3 performers on the project.
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_activity`.

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