What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 641022 of PE 0603851F. 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.
•Finalize Experimental Flight Test (EFT2), utilizing Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) launches as a platform to evaluate experimental payloads. This flight test aims to facilitate the maturation of key technologies by subjecting them to realistic flight conditions and gathering performance data in a representative environment. The data collected during the flight will be instrumental in refining future payload designs, validating performance models, and ultimately advancing the technological readiness level of these experimental systems. •Continue joint DoW/DoE test flight assembly (CORVUS) and development of telemetric equipment collecting/transmitting various component performance test data throughout launch, flight, and reentry
Decrease of funding due to funding tech adjustments for higher priorities in Command and Control Applications Program (C2AP)
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 research and engineering utilizing critical physics-space modeling and simulation to enable red and blue teams to determine outcomes of scenarios. (Future Operating Concept) •Begin Terminal Tracking and Scoring. The advanced tracking and scoring system revolutionizes flight testing by precisely monitoring the final descent trajectory of reentry vehicles using cutting-edge laser technology. Designed specifically for terminal phase tracking, this system significantly enhances the capabilities of older, legacy laser tracking systems. It achieves this through the incorporation of several key advancements, including the acquisition and utilization of extremely precise Time-Space-Position Information (TSPI). •Finalize IRIS study to evaluate AI and characterization. •Continue to gain a better understanding of how APL's novel manufacturing, high temperature materials, and testing capabilities can assist the knowledge base and future applications of Thermal Protection Systems. •Continue adversarial AI capability analysis. (CM Highrider) •Continue Experimental Flight Test (EFT2), utilizing Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) launches as a platform to evaluate experimental payloads. This flight test aims to facilitate the maturation of key technologies by subjecting them to realistic flight conditions and gathering performance data in a representative environment. The data collected during the flight will be instrumental in refining future payload designs, validating performance models, and ultimately advancing the technological readiness level of these experimental systems. •Continue future system demonstrator effort with the specific aim of creating advanced telemetric equipment designed to perform two critical functions: first, to collect comprehensive data from various components within the system being tested; and second, to transmit this collected data in real-time to receiving stations for analysis and evaluation. The data gathered will be crucial for validating design assumptions, refining system models, and ultimately ensuring the reliability and effectiveness of the system. •Continue research & development, and prototyping of advanced re-entry systems technologies in accordance with Inertial Navigation Technology Maturation, Sensor Fusion for Reentry Systems Technology Maturation, Advanced Fuzing Technology Maturation, Advanced Aeroshell Material Technology Maturation and Reentry Systems Test, Evaluation and Experimentation for potential insertion into the Path Length Module. •Continue to Bolster our ability to mature and deploy new ICBM technologies through demonstration and validation •Respond to evolving warfighter priorities and emerging requirements in support of developing ICBM weapon system capability.
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 | 71.9 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 72.0 |
| FY2027 | Request | 22.2 |
This activity is 100% of project 641022's FY2027 request and 31% of PE 0603851F'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 641022
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.