What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 245 of PE 0603618D8Z. 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.
FY 2027 will see an advancement in the technology focus, building upon the successes and lessons learned from previous years, adapting to current global events, and aggressively exploring new frontiers. 1. Silent Disco Series: Next-Generation Warfare Concepts - The cornerstone of FY 2027 efforts is the advancement of the Silent Disco series. This initiative will leverage key insights and technological derived from Silent Swarm 26 (SC-26) and Southern Lightning (SL-26), particularly those related to EMSO experimentation. Silent Disco will explore innovative and potentially disruptive warfare concepts to tackle relevant missions such as nonkinetic UxS and counter-UxS. 2. Generative AI for Operations (GAOPS) – Transition and Knowledge Transfer The Generative AI for Operations (GAOPS) project, focused on the investigation of novel attack strategies, is nearing completion. FY 2027 will be a period of winding down GAOPS activities, with a strong emphasis on knowledge capture and documentation, archiving key findings and tech transfer. 3. Infinity : Resilient Waveforms for Multi-Domain Operations (Successor to Infinity) Building upon the foundations laid by the "Infinity" project, Beyond Infinity will be launched. This project will concentrate on developing and deploying resilient waveforms for multi-domain operations, ensuring secure and reliable communications in contested environments. Beyond Infinity will incorporate lessons learned from previous waveform development efforts and focus on adaptive modulation and waveform management techniques and consideration for cross domain integration (air, land, sea, space, and cyber). 4. Epic Megaphone & Classified Studies – Classified Studies, now under the banner of Epic Megaphone will continue to explore critical areas related to edge sensor fusion and all-passive kill chains. Epic Megaphone will focus on advanced sensor integration, passive detection techniques: Investigate and all passive kill chains.
The increase of $28.645 million between FY 2026 and FY 2027 is to provide a comprehensive EMS Mission Engineering Capability for a classified mission to support COCOM EMS maneuver operational planning, execution, and response. This funding will also accelerate the development of related capabilities to be demonstrated at the annual Silent Swarm event.
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.
- Silent Swarm 26: Leverage lessons learned from Silent Swarm framework and transitions technologies for operational use. Increases participation within the Defense Industrial Base to 75 participants with more robust Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations (EMSO) contested environments. - Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Non-Kinetic Operations (GAOPS) – Leverages significant DOW investment in Machine Learning techniques across multi-service and multi-disciplinary use cases. - PIKES: Classified Project to implement adversary kill chain detection using passive, low cost, sensor networks. Provide pervasive non-detectable sensing capability that holds targets at risk without active radiation methos.
Passive Sensor Detection and Defeat (PSDD): • SILENT SWARM 24 (SS-24): Complete assessment and reports for SS-24. • SILENT SWARM 25 (SS-25): Begin planning and development of the SS-25 field experimentation venue. Platform Self-Protection (PS-P): • Joint Aircraft Survivability-Electro-optical/Infrared (JAS-EO/IR) Study. Investigation into EO & IR countermeasures and protections. Electronic warfare Cyber Interface (EWCI): • Continue Electronic warfare & Cyber (EW&C) efforts to find synergistic relationships between cyber and Electronic warfare (EW), including EW-enabled cyber effects non-kinetic approaches. • EW Collaboration and Coordination (EW C&C): Continue OUSD(R&E) Electronic warfare & Cyber (EW&C) work to guide, shepherd and oversee all EW and EW/Cyber technology development across DOD.
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 | 16.9 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 20.4 |
| FY2027 | Request | 49.1 |
This activity is 100% of project 245's FY2027 request and 100% of PE 0603618D8Z'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 245
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.