# Next Generation Information Communications Technology (5G) — Program Element 0604011D8Z

**Program element:** 0604011D8Z  
**Component:** Defense-Wide  
**Appropriation:** 0400 — RDT&E, Defense-Wide  
**Budget Activity:** 4 — Advanced Component Development & Prototypes  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604011D8Z

## Summary

Defense-Wide funding falls 100% to a $0.0M request in FY2027. In the FY2027 defense authorization, the House funded it in full while the Senate funded it in full.

## Funding profile

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 89.3 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 71.3 |
| 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 — the profile mixes actuals, enacted law, the request, and outyear projections.

## Congressional marks (FY2027)

| Stage | Marked ($M) | Change ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| Request | 5.9 | — |
| House NDAA (HASC) | 5.9 | +0.0 |
| Senate NDAA (SASC) | 5.9 | +0.0 |

> FY2027 NDAA authorization marks, as of 2026-07-27. Not appropriations or final law.

## Projects (4)

| Project | Title | FY2025 actual | FY2026 enacted | FY2027 request | Move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 724 | Expeditionary and Tactical Use | 36.5 | 27.3 | 0.0 | −100% |
| 725 | Ubiquitous, Secure, and Instant Access | 46.2 | 36.9 | 0.0 | −100% |
| 726 | Resilient and Open Commercial Solutions | 1.1 | 5.1 | 0.0 | −100% |
| 729 | Integrated Sensing and Communications | 5.5 | 2.0 | 0.0 | −100% |

> Projects are the summable leaves: the program element total is their sum, never added to it.

### Project 724 — Expeditionary and Tactical Use

Focus investment on 1) waveform resilience for tactical and expeditionary environments, 2) simplified network deployment (logical and physical), management, and orchestration, and 3) heterogenous network integration for Partner Force interoperability and interchangeability. At end-state, provide innovation that enables commercial network technologies in tactical operations and advance 5G/6G technology for scalable, interoperable, and resilient warfighting networks to execute effective communications for coalition coordination with Allies and Partners. When able, expeditionary and tactical projects will be evaluated in a deployed expeditionary environment over tactical and applicable commercial 5G/6G infrastructure with operationally relevant numbers of users and geographic scale. Current efforts will continue to leverage scalable, interoperable, and resilient warfighting networks that support Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control. Future efforts will optimize within the constraints of commercial 5G/6G standards by investigating application of relevant areas ahead of commercial markets and advocating for tactically relevant, high payoff seedling research in artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, operational security, and future standards development. The Army Tactical Mobility project is a cost effective, combat-ready 5G On-The-Move (OTM) Command and Control (C2) capability that meets latency, throughput, range, and resiliency objectives. This program will address operational needs and future Secure Cellular Program requirements for survivability of Army networks to include the distributed Command Post (i.e., mobility, dispersion, concealment). Additionally, in partnership with the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence, the Scalable Interoperable Resilient-5G (SIR-5G) initiative employs 5G secure roaming, Radio Access Network (RAN) Sharing, and internetworking to provide a 5G warfighting network that NATO allies can directly procure as they increase their defense spending.

| Activity (R-2A) | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expeditionary and Tactical Use | 36.5 | 12.3 | — |

> R-2A activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. Coverage is partial, so count them, never total them.

### Project 725 — Ubiquitous, Secure, and Instant Access

Focus investment on 1) 5G/6G Commercial Technology application and Commercial/Military shared resources that leverage both commercial and coalition networks without requiring new spectrum access and 2) expanding military communications coverage and increasing resiliency by integrating non-terrestrial networks (NTN) and high-altitude platforms to extend 5G/6G coverage to challenging areas and provide backup for existing areas. At end-state, deliver high availability wireless communication systems with security assurance across all DoW operational settings by exploiting the growing DoW diversity, coalition, and commercial communication option to provide high-availability secure communication and providing wireless network risk assessment tools and mitigations that inform operational decision-making. Current efforts will leverage world-wide high availability commercial networks for assured and resilient DoW communications. Future efforts will build on today’s developments in non-terrestrial networks toward multi-layer non-terrestrial networks that will provide ubiquitous access to communication and compute. Prototyped and/or enhanced capabilities will be based on technologies such as anomaly detection and zero-trust policy enforcement to maximize availability and resilience for wireless connectivity; multi-networking across wired and wireless systems for finding and exploiting alternate paths and redundant paths to ensure secure and reliable communication; Radio Access Network (RAN) Sharing that leverage commercial and private mobile network operators; and 5G non-terrestrial networks that use satellite, drones, and other low-altitude airborne vehicles to provide connectivity. These technologies will enable warfighters to access mobile communications anywhere they operate leveraging existing commercial 5G infrastructure and enhanced 5G network security architectures.

| Activity (R-2A) | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubiquitous, Secure, and Instant Access | 36.2 | 21.9 | — |

> R-2A activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. Coverage is partial, so count them, never total them.

### Project 726 — Resilient and Open Commercial Solutions

Continue to research and leverage Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) commercial technologies to accelerate critical DoW enterprise and mission capabilities and support the ability to fully leverage secure and resilient next generation networks. Support commercially sustainable advancements that deliver military and industry impact using open systems. DoW will conduct active and passive security vulnerability assessments of 5G prototypes in order to support zero-trust security designs for military 5G applications. Funding will be used to develop policies, regulations, and standards for streamlined deployment of protected, resilient Government and commercial networks and continue development of Open Radio Access Network (ORAN) standards and technologies that accelerate the adoption of open interfaces, interoperable subsystems, and modular, multi-vendor solutions, as well as leverage new technology components to create new ICT systems.

| Activity (R-2A) | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resilient and Open Commercial Solutions | 1.1 | 5.1 | — |

> R-2A activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. Coverage is partial, so count them, never total them.

### Project 729 — Integrated Sensing and Communications

The ISAC Line of Effort and projects focus research around both data and physics topics critical to realizing object and environmental detection using 5G/6G. These research topics include but are not limited to leveraging wireless info for detections, standards, Open RAN, program interfaces, AI/ML training, channel modeling, beam steering, reflective surfaces, optimization, spectrum sensing, and waveforms. Research has a defined migration path for integration into existing fusion and C2 systems. Transitions of ISAC technology will occur through additional features in existing C2 and intelligence systems, open-source software, candidate features for standards, hardware, and workforce development.

| Activity (R-2A) | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Integrated Sensing and Communications | 5.5 | 2.0 | — |

> R-2A activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. Coverage is partial, so count them, never total them.

## Mission & acquisition strategy

Purpose: This program supports the Department's mission to achieve peace through strength by restoring the warrior ethos and trust in our military, rebuilding our military by matching threats to capabilities, and reestablishing deterrence by defending our homeland. The Department of War (DoW) Next Generation (FutureG) Information Communications Technologies (ICT) program will conduct large-scale experimentation and prototyping of fifth-generation (5G) and future-generation wireless technology (FutureG) cellular network technology for military uses.

## Related program elements

- [0604875D8Z — Joint Systems Architecture Development](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604875D8Z) (Defense-Wide)
- [0604774D8Z — Defense Readiness Reporting System (DRRS)](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604774D8Z) (Defense-Wide)
- [0604343F — Advanced Tanker Systems](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604343F) (Air Force)
- [0305249F — AF JWICS Enterprise](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0305249F) (Air Force)

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Office of the Secretary of Defense RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibits R-2/R-3, PE 0604011D8Z (PB PB2027); FY2027 NDAA committee marks (as of 2026-07-27).
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_program_element(pe="0604011D8Z")`.

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