What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project ACX-01 of PE 0603468E. 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.
- Finalize flight test planning and airworthiness certification. - Complete structural proof load test to verify the built aircraft matches structural design predictions. - Complete final software integration lab verification testing to ensure the system operates as intended including the proper vehicle responses in the presence of simulated failures. - Complete subcomponent manufacturing and assembly. - Complete manufacturing, assembly, and quality assurance of the demonstrator vehicle. - Complete ground station and human-machine interface development. - Complete ground system checkouts including engine runs.
The FY 2027 increase reflects the transition from critical design activities to the manufacturing and final assembly and system checkout of the demonstration vehicle.
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.
- Complete critical design activities. - Finalize subsystem development (propulsion system, thermal management system, hydraulics, electrical system, etc.), vehicle integration, and engineering drawing release. - Continue toward final aircraft software and aircraft flight control algorithm development. - Continue flight test planning and airworthiness certification. - Integrate with the flight test facility for connectivity, data transfer, and flight safety requirements. - Execute demonstrator vehicle manufacturing and assembly, to include material acquisition and unique tooling for fabrication. - Initiate ground station and human-machine interface development. - Initiate ground system checkouts.
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) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | Enacted | 47.5 |
| FY2027 | Request | 62.1 |
This activity is 12% of project ACX-01's FY2027 request and 11% of PE 0603468E'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.
14 activities in project ACX-01
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.