What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 634920 of PE 0603211F. 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 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 high-speed airframe propulsion integration technology development focused on inlet and nozzle configurations, high- speed propulsion dual-mode scramjet and the necessary high temperature seals and actuation methods. - Activities include developing platform conceptual designs and conducting trade studies to refine analytical solutions for ground-test evaluation, advancing high-speed dual-mode scramjet design and tools to optimize heat-release and distortion performance, and performing trade studies to improve the efficiency and accuracy of high-speed direct-connect engine testing. Continue technology development addressing aerodynamic challenges encountered by a durable hypersonic platform operating across a wide Mach range. - Activities include studying low-speed performance, conducting configuration trade analyses, and collecting data on high-speed platforms operating outside cruise conditions, driving improvements in performance while supporting more affordable, reusable system designs. Commence technical performance validation efforts to enable scalable, affordable, exquisite and responsive strike hypersonic capabilities. - Activities include multi-disciplinary analysis and optimization of integrated high-speed/hypersonic platform designs to include integrated propulsion system, power, thermal management, aerothermodynamic effects, and mission system integration. Commence technology maturation activities to investigate performance capabilities of responsive strike hypersonic weapons. - Activities include demonstrating improved performance, thermal management, structural feasibility, and operability at higher Mach speeds, advancing toward more affordable high-speed weapon systems. Commence integrated airframe structures development and validation via ground test for high-speed platforms. - Activities include modeling and testing of structural materials, integrated structural components, and subscale integrated airframe structures. Commence development and validation of integrated power and thermal management technology for high-speed systems. Activities include: - The conceptual and detailed design of an integrated power and thermal subsystem and ground demonstration of its key high-temperature turbogenerator components, enabling a transition from traditional propulsion-sourced power to enable reduced system SWaP with increased range and/or payload capacity for future high-speed aircraft. - The development and demonstration of advanced thermal management technologies, such as high-temperature propulsion materials, alternative heat rejection approaches, and advanced power cycles that convert excess heat to electricity, driving increased vehicle thermal capacity to enable greater range, speed, and survivability for future high-speed reusable aircraft.
FY 2027 funding increased by $80.108 million due to the transfer of the High-Speed Systems Integration and Demonstration effort and associated funding within this Program Element from Project 634926 / High Speed Systems Integ & Demo to Project 634920 / Flight Vehicle Tech Integration (now called Aerospace Systems Integration and Demonstration). This includes an increase from FY2026 to FY2027 of $49.274 million due to increased development, validation, and system integration for enabling scalable, affordable, exquisite and responsive strike hypersonic capabilities and affordable, reusable system design.
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.
In FY 2025 and FY 2026, the High-Speed Systems Integration and Demonstration effort and funding were reported in Program Element 0603211F / Aerospace Technology Dev/Demo /Project 634926 / High Speed Systems Integ & Demo. FY 2025 funding was $8.878 million and FY 2026 funding is $30.834 million.
Three years, and no five-year plan
An R-2A activity publishes the prior year, the current year and the budget year. The FYDP outyears exist at project and program-element level and are deliberately absent here rather than inferred. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure.
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 0.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 0.0 |
| FY2027 | Request | 80.1 |
This activity is 31% of project 634920's FY2027 request and 31% of PE 0603211F'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.
7 activities in project 634920
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.