What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 112 of PE 0603941D8Z. 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.
In FY 2027, MACH-TB will continue to accelerate the cadence of flight tests supporting hypersonic experimentation and hypersonic system component testing. Highlights include: - Continue challenge-based acquisition, Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Accelerator (MACH-XL), to test and demonstrate affordable hypersonic systems from nontraditional DoW performers - Use recoverable/reuseable test bed to stress test hypersonic system and kill chains - Leverage MACH-TB to demonstrate lower cost producibility of Boost Glide Vehicles and lower cost for Thermal Protection System (TPS) aeroshell - Mature affordable sensor technology for transition to hypersonic weapon platforms - Reduce T&E uncertainty / test design conservatism and accelerate development - Continue block buy of launch service agreements with commercial launch providers for MACH-TB tests over the next three years; this will accelerate the timeline to achieve the Department’s goal of 50 flight tests per year
The increase from FY 2026 to FY 2027 will continue challenge-based acquisition with MACH-XL; block buy of launch service agreements with commercial launch providers for MACH-TB tests, increasing the tempo of hypersonic experimentation and system component testing through the MACH-TB program.
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.
In FY 2026, MACH-TB continues to accelerate the cadence of flight tests supporting hypersonic experimentation and hypersonic system component testing. Highlights include: - Leverage commercial space launch and non-traditional test beds to support stakeholders across the Department, other Federal agencies, industry, and academia - Acquire long-lead hardware and block buy of launch service agreements with commercial launch providers for MACH-TB tests over the next three years; this will accelerate the timeline to achieve the Department’s goal of 50 flight tests per year
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 | 0.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 334.0 |
| FY2027 | Request | 1,124.2 |
This activity is 100% of project 112's FY2027 request and 29% of PE 0603941D8Z'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 112
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.