What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 2966 of PE 0603673N. 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.
Complete the MATES INP: - Completing autonomy, perception, and command and control (C2) concepts for MATES conducting complex multi-domain operations in proximity to each other along a spectrum of missions. - Completing demonstration of multiple autonomy architectures across multiple domains conducting re-optimizing behaviors based on changing mission parameters and perception data. - Completing experiments to validate command and control with different levels of human oversight and trust. - Completing experiments to sequentially "phase" C2 of massed Super Swarm agents from close-in, dense, tightly controlled areas with continuous network coverage out to the maximum range where fully autonomous behavior is expected. - Completing experiments to test Super Swarm (PRJ 3459) agents in scenarios requiring AI-enabled perception of current manned blue teammate behavior states, derivation of anticipated future states, and evaluation of potential reactions to state changes.
There is no significant change in funding from FY 2026 to FY 2027.
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.
Continue the MATes INP by continuing all activities from FY25 to include those focused on: - Autonomy, perception, and command and control (C2) concepts for Manned and Autonomous Teams (MATES) conducting complex multi-domain operations in proximity to each other along a spectrum of missions. Missions range from fully autonomous to highly supervised requiring an agile optimization as real-world factors change. - Autonomy, perception, and command and control (C2) concepts for MATES conducting complex multi-domain operations in proximity to each other along a spectrum of missions. - Demonstration of multiple autonomy architectures across multiple domains conducting re-optimizing behaviors based on changing mission parameters and perception data. Agents will be Super Swarm (PRJ 3459) agents, and efforts will mutually inform tactical behavior, perception, and autonomy schemas. - Experiments to validate command and control with different levels of human oversight and trust. Initiate new following new tasks: - Experiments to sequentially "phase" C2 of massed Super Swarm agents from close-in, dense, tightly controlled areas with continuous network coverage out to the maximum range where fully autonomous behavior is expected. - Experiments to test Super Swarm (PRJ 3459) agents in scenarios requiring AI-enabled perception of current manned blue teammate behavior states, derivation of anticipated future states, and evaluation of potential reactions to state changes.
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 | 0.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 13.9 |
| FY2027 | Request | 13.5 |
This activity is 10.0% of project 2966's FY2027 request and 3.0% of PE 0603673N'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.
10 activities in project 2966
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.