What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 634094 of PE 0603273F. 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 establishing the requisite testing infrastructure needed to perform and evaluate nuclear re-entry system science and technology (S&T) activities relevant environments. - Continue the procurement of long-lead time special equipment for installation into government integration facilities. - Continue the construction design of a second facility supporting experimental re-entry mockup integration. - Continue procurement planning of long-lead time equipment for installation into the re-entry mockup integration facility. - Continue planning and design of high lateral acceleration (high-g), high-precision centrifuge to align with construction schedules and deliverables. - Continue developing enhanced ground and complementary experimentation capabilities and establish supporting strategic-grade inertial sensor characterization and validation to meet Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) analyses for future flights to achieve Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 for Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) and related components/systems/subsystems. - Continue integration planning for recoverable re-entry testbeds across multiple experimental payloads. - Continue developing functional requirements to establish an integration strategy and a proposed test plan for telemetry, GNC, Aeroshell, and fuzing technologies for future flights. - Continue developing requirements for enduring Government Reference Design (GRD) flights. - Continue coordination with GRD delivery system developer and launch facility coordinator. - Continue the development of subscale re-entry testbeds supporting modeling and simulation validation and TRL maturation for nuclear re-entry system components and materials. - Continue design and development for a reliable portfolio of sub-scale, dual-use nuclear re-entry system flight experiment platforms. - Complete design of the nuclear modeling and simulation capabilities facility. - Complete accreditation and certification processes for REVIL infrastructure, personnel, and equipment. - Commence operational use of REVIL, including use of IT equipment, networks, and contracted operational staffing costs for facility management and maintenance.
This effort increases by $2.256 million from FY 2026 to FY 2027 due to the accreditation, certification, and preparation for the operational use of REVIL, as well as the acquisitions and expertise development necessary to modernize nuclear S&T infrastructure. Continued modernization of nuclear S&T and infrastructure is vital to remaining on schedule with the jointly developed twenty-five (25)-year roadmap between the DAF and the U.S. Navy in accordance with strategic guidance provided by the Office of the Undersecretary of War (OUSW) for Research and Engineering (R&E) in FY 2023.
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.
- Continue establishing the requisite testing infrastructure needed to perform and evaluate nuclear re-entry system science and technology (S&T) in relevant environments. - Continue the procurement of long-lead time special equipment for installation into government integration facilities. - Continue accreditation and certification processes for the Re-Entry Vehicle Integration Laboratory (REVIL) infrastructure, personnel, and equipment. - Continue the construction design of a second facility supporting experimental re-entry mockup integration. - Continue procurement planning of long-lead time equipment for installation into the re-entry mockup integration facility. - Continue planning and design of high lateral acceleration (high-g), high-precision centrifuge to align with construction schedules and deliverables. - Continue developing enhanced ground and complementary experimentation capabilities and establish supporting strategic-grade inertial sensor characterization and validation to meet Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) analyses for future flights to achieve Technology Readiness Level 6 (TRL 6) for IMU and related components/systems/subsystems. - Continue integration planning for recoverable re-entry testbeds across multiple experimental payloads. - Continue developing functional requirements to establish an integration strategy and a proposed test plan for telemetry, GNC, Aeroshell, and fuzing technologies for future flights. - Continue developing requirements for enduring GRD flights. - Continue coordination with GRD delivery system developer and launch facility coordinator. - Continue the development of a re-entry testbed supporting modeling & simulation validation and TRL maturation for nuclear re-entry system components and materials. - Continue design and development for a reliable portfolio of sub-scale, dual-use nuclear re-entry system flight experiment platforms. - Complete construction of the Re-Entry Vehicle Integration Laboratory (REVIL), which will support integration of strategic technologies and testbeds. - Commence design of the nuclear modeling and simulation capabilities facility.
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 | 14.9 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 35.3 |
| FY2027 | Request | 37.6 |
This activity is 23% of project 634094's FY2027 request and 23% of PE 0603273F'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.
4 activities in project 634094
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 program-element page.