What project 634920 buys
This project demonstrates advanced aerospace system technologies. Aerospace system technology integration efforts are accomplished through integration of various technologies to include autonomy, power and thermal, propulsion (rocket, turbine, scramjet, etc.), air vehicle and weapon systems for demonstration in near realistic operational environments and ranging from subsonic, supersonic, to hypersonic speeds. Advanced aerospace system technologies are demonstrated to enhance the capability of current and future aerospace systems. Aerospace Technology Dev/Demo, received a Congressional add for FY 2026 $2.500 million for HITECH Beam Director Development. Upon Congressional spend plan approval, an Internal Reprogramming (IR) will be processed aligning the funding to PE0603605F for proper execution.
Project 634920 funding, FY2025–FY2031
Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure. Projects carry the full five-year plan; the activities inside them stop at the budget year.
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 24.3 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 109.2 |
| FY2027 | Request | 260.2 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 291.6 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 312.8 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 236.5 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 183.2 |
7 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. 6 of them describe FY2027 work in enough detail to have their own page; the rest are shown here in full. Coverage is partial across the corpus, so count activities, never total them.
Continue development and integration of larger scale scramjet component technologies. - Activities include evaluating thrust performance, structural integrity, and operability to drive higher-performance propulsion solutions while enabling more affordable, durable, and reusable system designs. Continue technology maturation activities to…
Read the FY2027 plan →Continue technology maturation activities to investigate performance capabilities of responsive strike hypersonic platforms. - Activities include demonstrating improved performance, thermal management, structural feasibility, and operability at higher Mach speeds, advancing toward more affordable, reusable high-speed systems. Continue…
Read the FY2027 plan →Continue new engine technologies to deliver reduced takeoff length, increased range, loiter, combat maneuverability, and lower cost for affordable unmanned aerial systems in contested environments. - Activities include design and development of augmentor test rigs. Complete advanced propulsion air frame integration experiments to enable…
Read the FY2027 plan →Continue development and testing of solid rocket motors relevant to defense needs for rapid and agile manufacturing, propulsion capability, high performance tactical demonstrations, and for use in missiles and rockets. - Activities include scale up toward flight-weight tests of tactical motors developed through additive manufacturing…
Read the FY2027 plan →Complete development of advanced contingency management capabilities required for credible affordable mass. - Deliver contingency management strategies and capabilities to enable affordable mass in high-speed systems. Commence development of autonomy architecture and communication changes for contingency management. - Activities include…
Read the FY2027 plan →Continue development of component technologies - Activities include design advancement of intelligent power distribution, design advancement of engine-agnostic power generation, and planned initial testing of affordable power generator hardware. Complete aircraft-scale power generation subsystem concept design - Activities include…
Read the FY2027 plan →FY2027 planned work Complete integrated flight demonstrations of sensor variant of low-cost unmanned platform to provide mission performance assessment of various payloads as-configured on the sensor variant. - Activities include integrated flight demonstrations of sensing mission payloads and configurations on an unmanned platform to deliver knowledge products for integration and a technology testbed. Commence full integration and demonstration of autonomy, power and thermal management, and key mission systems in flight on unmanned autonomous collaborative flight vehicles. - Activities include spiral development of vehicle technologies and digital designs to evaluate system effectiveness in technology…
FY2026 to FY2027 change FY 2027 decreased compared to FY 2026 by $1.128 million due to programmatic adjustments to the DAF Science and Technology portfolio. This reduction reflects a strategic realignment to optimize core research areas and improve resource efficiency.
FY2026 plans — current year Complete ground testing of the affordable unmanned non-kinetic weapon platforms for affordable mass via future autonomous collaborative unmanned platform payload capabilities -Activities include ground tests to confirm airworthiness retention due to configuration modifications. Complete integrated demonstrations of mission systems to the sensor variant of the low-cost unmanned platform for affordable mass via follow-on flight demonstrations of various sensor mission enabled aircraft for initial assessment. -Activities include design and physical implementations of various sensing mission payloads; airworthiness assessment of aircraft as configured. Complete technology demonstration of a…