# MC Advanced Technology Demo — Program Element 0603640M

**Program element:** 0603640M  
**Component:** U.S. Navy  
**Appropriation:** 1319 — RDT&E, Navy  
**Budget Activity:** 3 — Advanced Technology Development  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603640M

## Summary

U.S. Navy funding falls 36% to a $287.9M request in FY2027 (down from a FY2026 peak), sustained across the five-year plan. In the FY2027 defense authorization, the House added 1.7% (to $292.9M); the Senate added 14% (to $327.9M); House appropriators added 13% (to $324.4M).

## Funding profile

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 287.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 448.0 |
| FY2027 | Request | 287.9 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 241.3 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 254.3 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 257.5 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 261.5 |

> Estimate types are not summed — the profile mixes actuals, enacted law, the request, and outyear projections.

## Congressional marks (FY2027)

| Stage | Marked ($M) | Change ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| Request | 287.9 | — |
| House NDAA (HASC) | 292.9 | +5.0 |
| Senate NDAA (SASC) | 327.9 | +40.0 |
| House Approps (HAC-D) | 324.4 | +36.5 |

> FY2027 NDAA authorization marks, as of 2026-07-27. Not appropriations or final law.

## Projects (4)

| Project | Title | FY2025 actual | FY2026 enacted | FY2027 request | Move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2297 | Futures Directorate | 131.5 | 218.2 | 166.3 | −24% |
| 2223 | Marine Corps ATD | 99.5 | 86.3 | 116.3 | +35% |
| 2958 | Cyberspace Activities | 4.9 | 5.2 | 5.3 | +2% |
| 9999 | Congressional Adds | 51.1 | 138.2 | 0.0 | −100% |

> Projects are the summable leaves: the program element total is their sum, never added to it.

### Project 2297 — Futures Directorate

The mission of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory / Futures Directorate (MCWL/FD) is to examine future operating environments to generate threat-informed operating concepts and capabilities and, through experimentation, provide analytically supported recommendations to inform future force design and development activities. The Deputy Commandant, Combat Development and Integration (DC, CD&I) is the United States Marine Corps (USMC) advocate for Science and Technology (S&T). MCWL's Commanding General (CG) is the proponent of USMC S&T and serves as the USMC Executive Agent for Marine Corps S&T. The MCWL/FD also serves as the Marine Corps' liaison to the Joint Staff for Joint Concept Development and Experimentation; thereby, facilitating service-specific experiments as well as participation in joint service experimentation. As reflected in strategic guidance, expeditionary forces will provide an ever-ready quick strike force to protect United States (US) interests. MCWL/FD pursues concepts, capabilities, and solutions to ensure that Marines of the future force will be effectively organized, trained, and equipped to win across the range of military operations in an uncertain and complex environment. Prioritized investments in S&T are necessary to enable the future Marine Corps and maintain a technological advantage over our adversaries. This project is organized into 6 activities, the core of which are represented by the Warfighting Capability Areas of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF). The project emphasizes development and demonstration of advanced technology capability concepts, and the examination of their operational application and military utility in the context of formal wargames, Modeling, Simulation, and Analysis (MS&A), and live-force field experimentation with Marines. This operational experimentation directly supports Marine Corps combat development to inform future capability requirements and optimize the acquisition process.

| Activity (R-2A) | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Combat Service Support (CSS) and Force Protection | 47.8 | 35.3 | 43.9 |
| Fires, Targeting, and Maneuver | 4.8 | 120.9 | 6.4 |
| Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Command, Control, Communications, and Computers (C4) | 8.0 | 2.9 | 5.4 |
| Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) | 16.5 | 13.9 | 28.8 |
| Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory / Futures Directorate (MCWL/FD) Technical, Engineering, and Management Support | 22.3 | 24.2 | 23.9 |
| Warfighting Excellence | 32.1 | 21.0 | 57.8 |

> R-2A activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. Coverage is partial, so count them, never total them.

### Project 2223 — Marine Corps ATD

This project funds technology demonstration, experimentation, and prototyping; and more technologically mature projects within the Future Naval Capability (FNC) process as means to inform, enhance, enable, and invent future concepts and capabilities with new Science and Technology (S&T). This project is organized into ten activities, the core of which is represented by the eight Expeditionary Warfighting Capability Areas. Emphasized within this project are increased efforts to actively demonstrate advanced technologies and system concepts. These demonstrations and experiments focus on the specific technologies, not necessarily their operational application, and vary based on the technical maturity of the project. This early technology exposure gives Marines a view into the future and enables them to use their imagination and innovation to envision novel employment of the technology and inform the acquisition process.

| Activity (R-2A) | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Command, Control, Communications, Computers (C4) | 11.4 | 1.7 | 7.9 |
| Firepower | 11.4 | 10.2 | 13.6 |
| Force Protection | 11.4 | 15.4 | 15.2 |
| Human Performance, Training and Education | 7.8 | 7.1 | 10.2 |
| Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) | 9.6 | 15.8 | 16.4 |
| USMC Future Naval Capabilities | 28.1 | 29.6 | 31.0 |
| Logistics | 10.3 | 0.2 | 10.3 |
| Maneuver | 9.3 | 6.3 | 11.7 |

> R-2A activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. Coverage is partial, so count them, never total them.

### Project 2958 — Cyberspace Activities

This Project activity provides freedom of maneuver and influence in the cyber-electronic warfare domain while simultaneously denying the same to the adversary and protecting critical command systems. Technologies are being developed using a multi-disciplinary approach that combines Radio Frequency electronics, digital signal processing, computer engineering, software engineering, machine learning and data science to support Naval Expeditionary warfighters operating with size, weight and power constrained equipment in Disrupted, Intermittent, Limited environments. Areas of applied research include distributed precision time, predictive software defined radio architectures, coordinated Cyber and Spectrum maneuver to mitigate detection and exploitation, tactical Cyber visualization, discovering and mapping networks in dense urban environments, contextual awareness and blind channel characterization.

| Activity (R-2A) | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expeditionary Cyber | 4.9 | 5.2 | 5.3 |

> R-2A activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. Coverage is partial, so count them, never total them.

### Project 9999 — Congressional Adds

Congressional add projects not included in other efforts.

## Mission & acquisition strategy

The United States Navy/Marine Corps team is the most potent naval fighting force in the world. Fundamental to their success are the technologies necessary for effective Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO), Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO), Littoral Operations in Contested Environments (LOCE), Joint Warfighting Concepts, Stand-In Forces, and Reconnaissance / Counter-Reconnaissance. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) combines knowledge of the naval mission with researchers to select and explore solutions critical to expeditionary warfighting needs.

## Related program elements

- [0602131M — Marine Corps Lndg Force Tech](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602131M) (Navy)
- [0601121A — Cyber Collaborative Research Alliance](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0601121A) (Army)
- [0601110D8Z — Basic Research Initiatives](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0601110D8Z) (Defense-Wide)
- [0603469E — Advanced Enabling Technologies](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603469E) (Defense-Wide)

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Department of the Navy RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibits R-2/R-3, PE 0603640M (PB PB2027); FY2027 NDAA committee marks (as of 2026-07-27).
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_program_element(pe="0603640M")`.

*HitchAI is an independent intelligence service, not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense. Budget figures are requests/estimates, not obligations.*