What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 474 of PE 0603342D8Z. 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 to increase the Department's access to commercial technologies and talent consistent with the Administration's 2026 National Defense Strategy and the National Defense Science and Technology Strategy.
The $522.559 million funding request is necessary to support the Secretary's directive to focus on innovation that delivers asymmetric advantages while prioritizing commercial capabilities that will deliver immediate results. This is accomplished by awarding scalable contracts using agile processes and contracting authorities to companies offering solutions to national security challenges across a variety of technology areas and utilizing a diverse team of experts to reduce the time it takes the DoW to identify a problem, prototype a commercial solution, and implement it into the field to two years or less. The FY 2027 request includes realignments initiated in FY 2026 from PE 0603021D8Z: National Security Innovation Capital ($15.014 million) and PE 0603950D8Z: National Security Innovation Network ($21.644 million) to better support mission requirements.
FY2025: 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.
Execute at an accelerated pace on DIU 3.0 strategy leveraging the codification of DIU in the National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2025 and momentum from throughout 2026, to: •Refocus DIU on a smaller number of critical technology solutions that make a meaningful difference to the nation’s most strategic priorities, i.e., through real impact on Operational Plans, deterrence options, and scale operations •Ensure clarity of demand signals (Combatant Commands, Services, 4th Estate) for commercial technology solutions and staff support (Office of Secretary of Defense, Joint Staff, others) for commercial technology solutions to help the Department maximize likelihood of scale execution required for strategic impact; help develop and institutionalize appropriate processes to support scale at speed while managing risk •Catalyze/mobilize/enable nodes of commercial tech innovation across DoD into a coordinated community of innovation in support of Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense priorities •Serve as focal/bridging point to commercial tech sector and related private sector communities (e.g., financial), including at leadership level, in order to clarify the demand signals required for focus, speed, and scale, and best leverage those relationships to drive impact for DoD •Build an international community of innovation among our closest allies and partners, through exchange of Embeds, collaboration where appropriate, and sharing of best practices; deliver impact from that community for strategic technology priorities, strategic comms, and scale opportunity for commercial partners •Build trust and sense of momentum, in all directions (Congress, tech sector, Office of Secretary of Defense, Services, Combatant Commands) •Reshape DIU culture and team to deliver as a fully integrated disruptive change leader— and great teammate—on the broader DoD team. •Serve as senior advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense on technology innovation, competition, and strategic impact Under DIU’s expanded mandate, DIU will continue the following efforts, in addition to efforts alongside innovation partners and end-customers in Services, Combatant Commands and Office of Secretary of Defense: •Critical Tech Industrial Base Expansion: Invest in domestic & allied hardware companies (microelectronics, advanced comms, human systems) to protect them from adversary capital •Global Partnerships: Expand DIU’s collaboration to develop and deliver commercial technology solutions with allies & partners •Blue Unmanned Aircraft Systems: Expedite delivery of commercial UAS for warfighter use •Director’s Immediate Strategic Impact: Enable DIU Director to rapidly address emerging needs with innovative solutions •Academic Innovation Network: Facilitate the sustainment of ongoing academic programming and current and future OnRamp Hub sites, along with support activities associated with these facilities. These support activities include the funding to support the broader Regional Network Team, and programs such as accelerators, prize challenges, and mentoring activities designed to support early-stage ventures and talent as they navigate the national security innovation base. Initial funding for OnRamp Hubs and associated programming provided by a FY 2023 congressional add in the NSIN PE 0603950D8Z and in FY 2025 combined with DIU’s PE as part of the larger integration of NSIN into DIU.
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 | 130.9 |
| FY2027 | Request | 522.6 |
This activity is 100% of project 474's FY2027 request and 100% of PE 0603342D8Z'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.
1 activity in project 474
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.