What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 924 of PE 0603924D8Z. 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.
High Energy Laser Technology Maturation: Continue beam control maturation to include assessment efforts of counter missile, airborne for mid-term tactical missions, and meter-class beam directors for long-term strategic missions. Continue the development of higher order adaptive optics, advanced beam director common interfaces, and HEL source components to mature technologies and help accelerate acquisition by the Military Services. High Power Microwave Technology Maturation: Leverage applied research investments in agile-frequency sources, novel antenna designs, pulsed power, and effects testing made by the Services and Agencies and make additional investments in the components and sub-systems needed for the development of system-level prototypes. Prototypes should enable near-term demonstration in a relevant field environment and leverage investments previously made by the JDETO in high power microwave Technology. High Power Laser Development: Develop high priority laser technology and provide appropriate evaluation to facilitate transition. Test and Evaluation: Continue test and evaluation in support of mission-driven lethality and survivability. Assess vulnerability for specific threats and develop surrogate threats that meet the overall mission requirements. Perform dynamic field tests to demonstrate the lethality of advanced prototypes and the survivability of surrogate threats. Repeat the tests for both point-defense and area-defense engagements. Transition the remaining data from these tests to the Service and Agency partners and stakeholders. Help validate the engagement-level model predictions and refine aimpoint selection methodologies.
The increase of $80.362 million between FY 2026 and FY 2027 is to develop prioritized High Power Microwave and Laser Technologies and to provide the appropriate Testing and Evaluation that facilitates transition to the warfighter.
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.
High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative: Conclude the development of electronically driven continuous wave laser sources with industry partners. Utilize government and industry diagnostics to demonstrate 500-kilowatt-class and one-megawatt-class power levels. Also demonstrate performance with a technical readiness level suitable for integration into advanced prototypes. Transition these laser sources to the Directed Energy Tech Maturation Program within the JDETO in support of mission-driven lethality and survivability demonstrations, or to Service programs for proof-of-concept demonstrations or fieldable weapon system prototypes. High Energy Laser Technology Maturation: Continue beam control maturation to include assessment efforts of counter missile, airborne for mid-term tactical missions, and meter-class beam directors for long-term strategic missions. Continue the development of higher order adaptive optics, advanced beam director common interfaces, and HEL source components to mature technologies and help accelerate acquisition by the Military Services. Investigate the feasibly of integration of a one-megawatt-class laser source from the High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative with a meter-class beam director High Power Microwave Technology Maturation: Leverage applied research investments in agile-frequency sources, novel antenna designs, pulsed power, and effects testing made by the Services and Agencies and make additional investments in the components and sub-systems needed for the development of system-level prototypes. Prototypes should enable near-term demonstration in a relevant field environment and leverage investments previously made by the JDETO in high power microwave technology. Test and Evaluation: Conduct test and evaluation in support of mission-driven lethality and survivability. Assess vulnerability for specific threats and develop surrogate threats that meet the overall mission requirements. Perform static field tests to demonstrate the lethality of advanced prototypes and the survivability of surrogate threats. Repeat the tests for both point-defense and area-defense engagements. Transition the data from these tests to the Service and Agency partners and stakeholders. Validate the engagement-level model predictions and refine aimpoint selection methodologies.
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) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | Enacted | 120.8 |
| FY2027 | Request | 201.1 |
This activity is 100% of project 924's FY2027 request and 100% of PE 0603924D8Z'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.
2 activities in project 924
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 program-element page.