# Experimentation — Program Element 0604060F

**Program element:** 0604060F  
**Component:** U.S. Air Force  
**Appropriation:** 3600 — RDT&E, Air Force  
**Budget Activity:** 4 — Advanced Component Development & Prototypes  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604060F

## Summary

U.S. Air Force requests $39.3M in FY2027 against nothing enacted in FY2026 — the program's peak. In the FY2027 defense authorization, the House funded it in full; the Senate funded it in full; House appropriators funded it in full.

## Funding profile

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 0.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 0.0 |
| FY2027 | Request | 39.3 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 31.2 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 31.2 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 31.2 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 31.2 |

> 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 | 39.3 | — |
| House NDAA (HASC) | 39.3 | +0.0 |
| Senate NDAA (SASC) | 39.3 | +0.0 |
| House Approps (HAC-D) | 39.3 | +0.0 |

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

## Projects (1)

| Project | Title | FY2025 actual | FY2026 enacted | FY2027 request | Move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 645350 | Experimentation | 0.0 | 0.0 | 39.3 | new start |

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

### Project 645350 — Experimentation

To maintain decision superiority and execute Homeland Defense (HD) missions aligned with the National Defense Strategy (NDS), the Department is modernizing existing data centers to support Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities. This strategy maximizes current infrastructure investments to deliver advanced data analytics and autonomous planning tools across all classification networks, actively avoiding the high costs and extended timelines associated with existing time-intensive tasks such as drafting operation plans, summarizing intelligence, and integrating cross domain data. This approach focuses on improving on-premises infrastructure to support DoW scalable environments, data analytics, and AI tool suites to support the integration of intelligence, planning, and operations data to address immediate mission needs. For example, this capability provides analysts with instant access to AI driven dashboards and alerts that fuse sensor feeds, logistics, and mission plans to rapidly enhance border monitoring, illicit trafficking detection, and domain awareness which significantly reduces analytic workloads, accelerates operational planning, and drives decision superiority in direct support of Homeland Defense (HD) and the Unified Command Plan (UCP). Under the Unified Command Plan, USNORTHCOM must maintain decision superiority by delivering timely, data-driven insights to protect the homeland. The current manual analytic workloads and extended planning cycles severely limit the response time to emerging threats. This AI implementation directly addresses limiting factors by streamlining analytic workloads, shrinking plan-drafting cycles, and drastically boosting real-time warning accuracy for border incursions, missile launches, and illicit trafficking. Embedding agentic AI directly into staff processes and coordination workflows accelerates situational awareness and tightens critical decision timelines, unlocking additional capacity for high-value decision support. This effort is in Budget Activity 4, Advanced Component Development and Prototypes (ACD&P), because efforts are necessary to evaluate integrated technologies, representative modes or prototype systems in a high fidelity and realistic operating environment.

| Activity (R-2A) | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| N&NC Experimentation | — | 0.0 | 39.3 |

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

## Where the FY2027 request goes

| Category | Share | $M |
|---|---|---|
| Other / unspecified | 100% | 39.3 |

> R-3 exhibit contract funding, not USAspending obligations.

## Mission & acquisition strategy

To maintain decision superiority and execute Homeland Defense (HD) missions aligned with the National Defense Strategy (NDS), the Department is modernizing existing data centers to support Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities. This strategy maximizes current infrastructure investments to deliver advanced data analytics and autonomous planning tools across all classification networks, actively avoiding the high costs and extended timelines associated with existing time-intensive tasks such as drafting operation plans, summarizing intelligence, and integrating cross domain data.

## Related program elements

- [0604742A — Constructive Simulation Systems Development](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604742A) (Army)
- [0305232M — RQ-11 UAV](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0305232M) (Navy)
- [0603635M — Marine Corps Grnd Cmbt/Supt Sys](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603635M) (Navy)
- [0604015F — Long Range Strike - Bomber](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604015F) (Air Force)

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Department of the Air Force RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibits R-2/R-3, PE 0604060F (PB PB2027); FY2027 NDAA committee marks (as of 2026-07-27).
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_program_element(pe="0604060F")`.

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