# Project 1097 — NavalX (Naval Accelerator)

**Program element:** 0603758N — Navy Warfighting Exp & Demo  
**Project:** 1097  
**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/0603758N/1097  
**Parent:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603758N

## Summary

Project 1097 — NavalX (Naval Accelerator) requests $0.0M in FY2027, 0.0% of the $66.4M requested for program element 0603758N, down 100% on FY2026. 6 R-2A activities decompose the request.

## Funding profile

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 27.1 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 17.9 |
| FY2027 | Request | 0.0 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 0.0 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 0.0 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 0.0 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 0.0 |

> Estimate types are not summed. This project is one leaf of PE 0603758N; the PE total is the sum of its projects, never added to them.

## What project 1097 buys

In FY25, the Department of Navy (DON) consolidated and established the NavalX (Naval Acceleration) PU 1097 under PE 0603758N with six distinct activities (1) Naval Warfare Prototype and Demonstration to develop and deliver rapid prototypes to warfighters; (2) Technology Analysis, Development, and Investments to analyze technologies to address capability gaps from commercial marketplaces, including investment capital to kickstart and mature the technology in preparation for (1) above; (3) Innovation Agility to address enabling technologies to speed up integration and transition of capability enhancing technology and overcome technical debt; (4) Tech Bridges to cultivate local business ecosystems in order to discover and accelerate non-traditional companies with commercial technologies that can be rapidly adopted by the warfighter; (5) Innovation Operations to support mission-driven problem solving across the DON and academia in support of culture, organizational, and business changes to enable agile and rapid prototyping, development, and transition processes, and (6) Innovation Protection Policy (IPP) to provide research to inform policy on technology trends to enable U.S. dominance in the future technological marketplace.

## Activities (R-2A) — 6

| Activity | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 | Move | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naval Warfare Prototype and Demonstration (NavalX) | 2.5 | 2.4 | 0.0 | −100% | — |
| Technology Analysis, Development, and Investments (NavalX) | 2.6 | 3.4 | 0.0 | −100% | — |
| Innovation Agility (NavalX) | 4.0 | 3.1 | 0.0 | −100% | — |
| Tech Bridges (NavalX) | 9.8 | 6.8 | 0.0 | −100% | — |
| Innovation Operations (NavalX) | 7.7 | 1.8 | 0.0 | −100% | — |
| Innovation Protection Policy (NavalX) | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | −100% | — |

> Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. In the request year they partition this project exactly; in earlier years they can under-cover it.

### Naval Warfare Prototype and Demonstration (NavalX)

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** Decrease from FY 2026 to FY 2027 due to reprioritization of Naval S&T resources.

**FY2026 plans — current year.** - Complete the management of a technology prototype demonstration, test, and analysis plan that will guide multi-year technology development efforts in response to emerging concepts and doctrine. - Complete exercises and operational environment tests as an excursion to traditional programs to address additional warfighter needs and/or mitigate capability delivery risk. - Complete to maintain and leverage innovation test and analysis opportunities to guide prioritized concept investigations and iterations in support of Fleet/Force needs and strategic technology development initiatives. - Complete to develop and manage AI technologies for the NRE AI ecosystem. - Complete to develop Fleet engagement plans for technology assessments, including Integrated Battle Problem 26, Trident Spectre 26, UNITAS, COMPACFLT PACIFIC DRAGON, Valiant Shield 26, and others. - Complete tech scans, tech assessments, and follow-up technology transition engagements, leveraging commercialization initiatives with industry and academia partners. - Continue to participate in large scale service-level exercises to incubate and mature prototype technologies and capabilities with Fleet and Force input to establish concept potential and to inform NRE transition and investment decisions. - Initiate the Capability Readiness process and complete technology readiness, acquisition readiness, manufacturing readiness, and transition readiness assessments for each technology candidate under evaluation at the experimentation events.

### Technology Analysis, Development, and Investments (NavalX)

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** Decrease from FY 2026 to FY 2027 due to reprioritization of Naval S&T resources.

**FY2026 plans — current year.** - Complete - Identify, prioritize, and analyze technologies to solve mission focused, human-centered challenges using innovation and systems engineering methods for the Navy and United States Marine Corps (USMC) by providing analysis, facilitating development, and managing the transition of new technologies through the innovation operations cycle. - Complete the Technology Analysis process using capability readiness assessments, business and acquisition readiness, and the mission benefit and warfighter utility assessments to prioritize and select commercial and dual-use technology for incubation and rapid transition. - Complete the analysis to support 10 technology scans, driven by validated Fleet/Force problem statements traceable to IPLs or other urgent needs statements, leveraging the NavalX Salesforce System (NXSS) database of technology leads and potential solutions. Provide the analysis to support 1 prize challenge executed across the ecosystem by the Tech Bridges.

### Innovation Agility (NavalX)

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** Decrease from FY 2026 to FY 2027 due to reprioritization of Naval S&T resources.

**FY2026 plans — current year.** - Complete to support and manage Innovation Agility projects, ensuring alignment with National Defense Strategy, OSW Modernization Priorities and CNO / CMC Guidance. Continue to lead the application of the NavalX Innovation to accelerate the discovery, development of new technologies and capabilities for naval warfighters. - Complete to support discovery of trends, sharing lessons learned, and empowering the workforce to solve problems and build their agility skills by providing high-quality, low-friction training and support to equip commands with warfighter-centered fundamentals. NavalX will leverage its agility workforce initiatives to create and shape the innovation workforce of the DON, focused on the product development marketplace that transitions and incubates technologies to scale. Innovation in the military marketplace requires training and an agility and innovative mindset fostered by NavalX Innovation Agility. - Complete innovation workforce training and culture efforts including CAW and WFA to foster a culture and educated workforce that encourages innovation, problem solving, and achievement using industry best-practices. - Complete to develop and deliver incremental builds of the Business of Innovation R&D digital environment including integration of Automated Test and Re-Test (ATRT), Model-Based Systems Engineering, Customer Resource Management, Cybersecurity, Force-Level Integration and assessment, Collaboration boards, Agile/Sprint tools, Software CM tools, and other virtual- and cloud-based tools to lower the barrier of entry for new small businesses and startups. Digital environment will directly map to the Innovation Operations pipeline and support the transition and development of new technology solutions.

### Tech Bridges (NavalX)

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** Decrease from FY 2026 to FY 2027 due to reprioritization of Naval S&T resources.

**FY2026 plans — current year.** - Complete to support local/regional economic development to grow the defense industrial base. - Complete to support regional technology innovation challenges addressing critical Naval mission problems; increase participation of small- and medium-sized business in the defense industrial base, including nontraditional businesses and new startups; produce and deliver dual-use prototypes in partnership with the local/regional commercial sector, and support regional operational experimentation events. - Complete to foster regional support and participation in NavalX innovation and experimentation initiatives in FY26, such as PACFLT's Integrated Battle Problem 26 or Trident Spectre 26 by performing tech scans, industry outreach, conducting "Industry Day" style meetings and conferences, and completing prize challenges. - Complete to support technology transition of local ecosystem businesses into Navy acquisition programs of record through the Innovation Operations pipeline by shepherding local/regional small business, start-ups, and non-traditional businesses through various stages of the business of innovation cycle and the acquisition process.

### Innovation Operations (NavalX)

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** Decrease from FY 2026 to FY 2027 due to reprioritization of Naval S&T resources.

**FY2026 plans — current year.** - Complete and expand development of innovative prototypes at Warfare Centers, Naval Laboratories, NavalX Tech Bridges, and related DON organizations solving key warfighter problems that are identified through the innovation process. - Complete and expand efforts to emphasize the implementation of a common innovation process and language to accelerate the delivery of capabilities to the warfighter. - Complete to lead Fleet/Force Engagement initiatives with warfighters and S&T leads across all the TYCOMS and numbered Fleets to understand, identify, source, and curate problem statements for critical warfighting gaps. Work within the innovation process and the Tech Bridges to help identify potential technology solutions to the curated problem statements and act as the Fleet interface throughout technology discovery, incubation, and fielding. - Complete - Conduct Industry Day Challenges that solicit and expand the DON industrial base, especially small businesses and startups, to solve warfighter problems. The Challenges will employ the NavalX Tech Bridge network to reach the widest possible industrial base and to promote collaborations across the NRE. - Complete to Expand Naval sustainment efforts across Warfare Centers through cross-community challenges and Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) topics. - Complete - Conduct collaborative activities across the Defense Innovation Community of Entities (DICE)

### Innovation Protection Policy (NavalX)

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** Decrease from FY 2026 to FY 2027 due to reprioritization of Naval S&T resources.

**FY2026 plans — current year.** - Complete IPP research, analysis, and policy development for protection of intellectual property contained in patents for critical and national security technologies.

## What is NOT on this page

Congressional marks, the R-2 mission description and acquisition strategy, the industry vs government split of the whole request, and related program elements are recorded at **program-element** grain — an NDAA mark lands on a PE, never on a project. They are at https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603758N.

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Department of the Navy RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibits R-2/R-2A/R-3, PE 0603758N project 1097 (PB PB2027).
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_program_element(pe="0603758N")`.

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