# Advanced Manufacturing Technologies

**R-2A activity** of project 635280 — Manufacturing Technologies  
**Program element:** 0603680F — Manufacturing Technologies  
**Component:** U.S. Air Force · **Budget Activity:** 3  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603680F/635280/a1  
**Parent:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603680F

## Summary

This activity requests $16.5M in FY2027, 17% of project 635280, down 3.1% on FY2026. The R-2A exhibit describes it across FY2026–FY2027, including what the FY2027 money is planned to buy.

## What the FY2027 request buys

**FY2027 planned work.** - Continue to enable advanced manufacturing processes, techniques, and equipment availability through automation, robotics, mixed reality and digital transformations for reducing materiel weapons acquisition, maintenance and repair costs. - Continue the development and demonstration of digital engineering concepts into manufacturing processes for reduced design through production cycle times, and reduced weapons systems costs. Examples include 1) the development of tools to utilize block chain technology for seamless and secure share manufacturing throughout the Prime manufacturer's supply chain and with the Department of the Air Force (DAF) Program Office and 2) the development of digital design and modeling tools that enable rapid, high quality assembly of parts from multiple manufacturers. Activities include: -- Testing and validation of pre-assembled kits for large-scale composite assembly approaches. - Accelerate the development, demonstration, and evaluation of additively manufactured aerospace components and subcomponents to address diminishing manufacturing sources issues of original designed parts no longer available/produced and to produce previously unmanufacturable part geometries/shapes for increased performance. Activities include: -- Demonstration of autonomous robotic forming for production of long-lead forged components. - Continue the development of tools to rapidly develop digital models of parts under depot repair to enable rapid automation of repair processes currently completed through touch labor. Activities include: -- Demonstration of the ingestion of as-manufactured geometries into computer aided design (CAD) packages to advance data exchange and interoperability across aerospace primes and their suppliers to lower costs and increase rate of downstream processes. - Commence lab-scale demonstrations to identify the limits and optimal use of large language models to simplify human programming of robotic systems for manufacturing. Activities include: -- Investigation of agile programming approaches on commercial robot systems for rapid insertion into manufacturing environments.

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** Funding in FY 2027 decreased compared to FY 2026 by $0.538 million due to completion of research in technologies enabling factory of the future, digital supply chain management, and the industrial internet of things.

## Before the request year

**FY2026 plans — current year.** - Continue to enable advanced manufacturing processes, techniques, and equipment availability through automation, robotics, mixed reality and digital transformations for reducing materiel weapons acquisition, maintenance and repair costs. - Continue the development and demonstration of digital engineering concepts into manufacturing processes for reduced design-through production cycle times, and reduced weapons systems costs. Examples include 1) the development of tools to utilize block chain technology for seamless and secure share manufacturing throughout the Prime manufacturer's supply chain and with the Department of the Air Force (DAF) Program Office and 2) the development of digital design and modeling tools that enable rapid, high quality assembly of parts from multiple manufacturers. - Accelerate the development, demonstration, and evaluation of additively manufactured aerospace components and subcomponents to address diminishing manufacturing sources issues of original designed parts no longer available/produced and to produce previously unmanufacturable part geometries/shapes for increased performance. - Complete the development and demonstration of technologies that enable the factory of the future, digital supply chain management, and industrial internet of things. - Commence the development of tools to rapidly develop digital models of parts under depot repair to enable rapid automation of repair processes currently completed through touch labor.

## Funding

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 13.8 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 17.1 |
| FY2027 | Request | 16.5 |

> Prior, current and budget year only — an R-2A activity carries no five-year plan. It sums exactly into its project in the request year and not necessarily in any other.

## Other activities in project 635280

- [Advanced Battery Manufacturing and Technologies](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603680F/635280/a3) — FY2027 53.6
- [Manufacturing for the Future Force](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603680F/635280/a2) — FY2027 18.1
- [Affordable Mission Availability](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603680F/635280/a0) — FY2027 11.6

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Department of the Air Force RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibit R-2A, PE 0603680F project 635280 (PB PB2027). Narrative is the government's own text.
- **No marks, no contractors at this grain** — congressional marks land on the program element and R-3 performers on the project.
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_activity`.

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