What project 633151 buys
This Project develops and demonstrates integrated, state of the art, high energy laser (HEL) weapon demonstrator systems to satisfy Department of the Air Force requirements in areas including, counter unmanned aerial systems (c-UAS), counter intelligence/surveillance/reconnaissance (c-ISR), and counter missiles (c-Missile) for High Value Airborne Asset (HVAA) protection and point defense. In addition, this Project develops and demonstrates high power microwave and other unconventional electromagnetic field generation and transmission technologies that can be integrated into future weapon systems to support a wide range of the Department of the Air Force missions such as air base defense or the damage/destruction of an adversary's electronic infrastructure. It also provides inputs to the susceptibility, vulnerability, and lethality databases used across the Department of War to understand thresholds for scalable effects of directed energy weapons. Technologies developed under Program Element 0602605F / Directed Energy Technology feed directly into this Project.
Project 633151 funding, FY2025–FY2031
Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure. Projects carry the full five-year plan; the activities inside them stop at the budget year.
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 0.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 0.0 |
| FY2027 | Request | 13.7 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 14.6 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 19.4 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 20.7 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 20.8 |
2 accomplishments / planned programs
The R-2A exhibit — the only level of the budget that describes work that has not happened yet. Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only, no five-year plan. 1 of them describes FY2027 work in enough detail to have its own page; the rest are shown here in full. Coverage is partial across the corpus, so count activities, never total them.
- Complete base defense demonstrations of Directed Energy Frontline Electromagnetic Neutralization and Defeat (DEFEND) system in collaboration with the Navy. Activities include: Demonstrating of full kill chain in testing; Work with warfighters to develop CONOPS, CONEMPS, and TTPs. - Continue design effort of airborne HPM systems. This…
Read the FY2027 plan →FY2027 planned work - Resume design and simulation of an optimized airborne laser weapon system demonstrator for counter unmanned aerial systems (c-UAS) and counter intelligence/surveillance/reconnaissance (c-ISR) missions. Activities include: employing the validated predictive, multi-physics, modeling tools and model-based systems engineering (MBSE) and digital engineering practices/constructs developed under PE 0602605F / Directed Energy Technology, Project 625173 / Laser Technology, to develop optimized system concepts and down-select the top candidate for the capability demonstration planned for FY 2028. - Commence integrated airborne laser weapon system demonstrator hardware development for counter…
FY2026 to FY2027 change FY 2027 increased compared to FY 2026 by $3.423 million due to resumption of the previously paused effort to perform an airborne demonstration for counter unmanned aerial system (cUAS).
FY2026 plans — current year - Stop work on testing and demonstrating a packaged high-energy laser (HEL) and beam control subsystem. - Stop work on planning for next phase of advanced integrated technologies for compact, low-size, weight and power (SWaP) airborne laser weapon system.