What project 094 buys
The Advanced Instrumentation Systems Technology (AIST) project addresses the test technology gaps resulting from emerging weapon systems that need to be assessed at the Department’s installed systems test facility and hardware-in-the-loop testing (ISTF/HITL) and open-air range test facilities (including tropospheric, land-based, open-ocean, and undersea ranges). Instrumentation requirements for systems under test are increasing exponentially for new weapons systems. System-borne, warfighter-wearable, and remote sensing instrumentation packages are required. This instrumentation is for sensing and collecting critical performance data; determining accurate time, space, position information (TSPI) and attitude information; interfacing with command and control data links; monitoring and reporting system-wide communications; recording human operator physical and cognitive performance; and storing and transmitting data. The technology development efforts within the AIST project have been prioritized to align with the Department’s guidance on science and technology (S&T) communities of interest (COIs). The AIST project is focused on developing technologies for advanced TSPI instrumentation (especially with limited or no availability of Global Positioning System (GPS)), advanced sensors, advanced energy and power systems for instrumentation, micro-electronics, mitigating range encroachment issues, and measuring warfighter physical and cognitive performance. The AIST project addresses requirements for miniaturized, non-intrusive instrumentation suites with increased survivability in harsh environments. Such instrumentation is an urgent need because minimal space is available to add instrumentation to new or existing weapon systems subsequent to their development; furthermore, additional weight and power needs for instrumentation can adversely affect weapon system signature and performance. Instrumentation for humans-in-the-loop, especially dismounted warfighters, must not adversely affect performance, induce artificiality in the test environment, or create any operational burdens. New technologies can be exploited to integrate small, non-intrusive instrumentation (micro-technology) into emerging platforms during design and development, and, in some cases, into existing platforms.
Project 094 funding, FY2025–FY2031
Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure. Projects carry the full five-year plan; the activities inside them stop at the budget year.
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 18.6 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 18.8 |
| FY2027 | Request | 65.9 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 42.2 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 30.1 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 29.0 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 29.4 |
1 accomplishment / planned program
The R-2A exhibit — the only level of the budget that describes work that has not happened yet. Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only, no five-year plan. Each describes FY2027 work in enough detail to have its own page; the rest are shown here in full. Coverage is partial across the corpus, so count activities, never total them.
In FY 2027, AIST will continue to develop test technologies for assessing emerging weapon systems at ISTF/HITL as well as open-air range test facilities (including high altitude, land-based, open-ocean, and undersea ranges). Highlights include: - Developing tools for “what-if” analytics to improve range planning processes and automate…
Read the FY2027 plan →