What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project DS7 of PE 0603461A. 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.
The Defense Research and Engineering Network will build on its foundation as DoW's premier secure, high-performance network, delivering the advanced connectivity and resilience required to meet evolving research, development, test, and evaluation demands. The Defense Research and Engineering Network will further mature its networking capabilities, enabling seamless, large-scale computational workflows that integrate high-end computing, live test assets, and operational prototypes. This will allow DoW teams to accelerate the development, testing, and refinement of next-generation warfighting technologies, ensuring rapid transition from concept to capability across critical mission areas. To stay ahead of emerging threats, the Defense Research and Engineering Network will expand its global footprint in key regions - including the Pacific and Europe - providing agile, reliable connectivity that supports real-time experimentation and joint operations in contested environments. Additionally, the Defense Research and Engineering Network will continue to strengthen its cutting-edge cyber defenses, ensuring the secure exchange and protection of sensitive DoW and industry intellectual property as researchers and engineers push the boundaries of innovation. By evolving in lockstep with operational needs, the Defense Research and Engineering Network will remain the cornerstone of DoW's digital modernization, enabling the collaborative, secure, and high-speed environment required to maintain technological overmatch.
Funding decrease reflects reduced maturation of network connectivity for testing and next generation systems.
FY2025–FY2026: 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.
The Defense Research and Engineering Network delivers transformative advancements to empower the most critical DoW research, development, test, and evaluation missions. By maturing secure, high-performance networking across multiple classification levels, Defense Research and Engineering Network enables seamless, large-scale computational workflows that integrate high-end computing, real-world test devices, and live operational participants. This accelerates the development and validation of next-generation DoW capabilities, reducing time-to-fielding for warfighting technologies and ensuring decisive advantages in an evolving threat landscape. To support dynamic global operations, Defense Research and Engineering Network expands its reach into key theaters - including the Pacific and Europe - providing reliable, low-latency connectivity that enables real-time collaboration and experimentation across geographically dispersed teams. Additionally, Defense Research and Engineering Network strengthens its advanced cybersecurity defenses, ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of DoW intellectual property and sensitive research, development, test, and evaluation data as researchers and engineers push the boundaries of innovation. These efforts solidify the role of the Defense Research and Engineering Network as the trusted digital backbone for DoW modernization, enabling the collaborative, agile, and secure environment needed to outpace adversaries and maintain technological supremacy.
Matured and demonstrated secure, advanced networking across a full range of classifications to provide over 1600 Gigabits per second of aggregate bandwidth to more than 230 CONUS and 18 OCONUS sites to implement computational workflows that employ various combinations of high-end computing resources, research assets, test center devices, weapon/platform prototypes, and live participants to mature and demonstrate capabilities for important DoD research, test, and engineering priorities. Continue to expand DREN installation in the Pacific and other regions of interest to meet test requirements in response to emerging threats. Continue to mature and enhance the secure protection of DREN from external and internal threats to effectively protect the intellectual property of the DoD and its contract entities engaged in research, test, and engineering missions.
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 | 54.4 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 51.0 |
| FY2027 | Request | 46.2 |
This activity is 21% of project DS7's FY2027 request and 21% of PE 0603461A'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.
3 activities in project DS7
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.