Project 786
$8.6MFY2027 request ▲ 24%Acquisition Ecosystem
FY2025 actual$0.0M
FY2026 enacted$6.9M
FY2027 request$8.6M
Product Development
FY2027 Request
$11.2M
▲ 24% vs FY2026
FY2026 Enacted
$9.1M
▼ 97% vs FY2025
FY2025 Actual
$330.3M
Prior year
Roll-up of 3 projects. Projects are the summable leaves — the PE total is their sum, never added to it.
For fiscal year 2027, Defense-Wide agencies are requesting $11.2M for Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAO) - Dem/Val Activities under RDT&E program element 0604123D8Z, up 24% over FY2026.
Funding trajectory
Funding profile, FY2025–FY2031
Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure.
Actual Enacted Request Outyear (FYDP)
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 330.3 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 9.1 |
| FY2027 | Request | 11.2 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 10.2 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 17.6 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 20.2 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 20.7 |
Where it sits
Acquisition lifecycle
This program is funded in RDT&E Budget Activity 5 — System Development & Demonstration.
Complete
Research
BA 1–2
Complete
Advanced Technology
BA 3
Complete
Prototyping
BA 4
Current
Development & Fielding
BA 5–7
Inside the program element
3 projects roll up into PE 0604123D8Z
Projects are the summable leaves — the PE total is their sum, never added to it. Program elements and projects carry the full five-year plan; activities stop at the budget year. This PE moves 24% overall, which can hide much larger swings below.
Project 084
$2.6MFY2027 request ▲ 21%Management Innovation Pilots
FY2025 actual$0.0M
FY2026 enacted$2.1M
FY2027 request$2.6M
Product Development
Project 067
—FY2027 request AI/ML Demonstration & Validation
FY2025 actual$330.3M
FY2026 enacted$0.0M
FY2027 request—
Product Development
The whole program
AI/ML is funded on 2 lines across 2 appropriations
This program element requests nothing for AI/ML in FY2027. The program is still funded — $0.0M of it — but on other lines, which usually means the work is transferring.
| Also funded here | Type | Component | FY2027 $M |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI/ML Basic Research Hub | RDT&E | Army | — |
| AI/ML total | Army, Defense-Wide | 0.0 |
Lines whose title names the program. 155 further lines only mention AI/ML in their justification text — those fund something else and are deliberately excluded from the total.
Congressional action
Congressional marks
Committee marks on the FY2027 request. Adds and cuts are reconciled in conference before they become law.
RequestPresident's Budget
$11.2M
House NDAA (HASC)HASC
$11.2M full · +$0
Senate NDAA (SASC)SASC
$11.2M full · +$0
House Approps (HAC-D)HAC_D
$22.2M +$11.0M · +98%
▲ $11.0M chamber gap — unresolved as of 2026-07-27. These are FY2027 authorization marks (NDAA); appropriations and the conference agreement may differ.
Who's building it
Where the FY2027 request goes
Performers named in the R-3 exhibit, resolved into industry, government-lab, and unspecified shares. Budget-justification contract funding, not obligations.
Management Innovation Pilots
$2.6M · 23%
Innovet
$2.0M · 18%
| Where FY2027 funding flows | Share | $M |
|---|---|---|
| Industry primes | 69% | 7.7 |
| Government labs & warfare centers | 24% | 2.7 |
| Other / unspecified | 6.5% | 0.7 |
| FY2027 request | 100% | 11.2 |
Program detail
Mission & acquisition strategy
CDAO’s Foundational Enablers efforts in this PE include: • Acquisition Ecosystem: provides rapid, effective, and efficient acquisition support to CDAO and DoW at large (through decentralized offerings) by providing contracting capabilities, guidance, and training for the acquisition workforce on AI. The CDAO Acquisition Ecosystem provides several types of contracting mechanisms / vehicles such as CSOs, OTAs, BOAs, and BPAs; expedited contracting processes; and AI-driven tools to streamline federal procurements.
The CDAO acquisition, management, and contracting strategy follows guidance outlined in the DoW 5000 series directives, Other Transaction Authorities (OTA), Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and FAR supplement policies and procedures. Management uses project management tools and meetings to ensure delivery of stated capabilities and performance criteria.
Project 786, 084, 067 — Acquisition Ecosystem
- Product Development
Ask Hitch
Ask this program element
Answers are generated from the figures on this page — the FY2027 justification exhibits and the marks tracked above — and nothing else is consulted. Confirm any figure against the cited exhibit before you use it externally.
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Questions this page can answer
How does the FY2027 request compare with FY2026, and what does the five-year plan show?What did the FY2027 NDAA committees do to this request?Which project inside PE 0604123D8Z is growing fastest, and which is shrinking?How is the FY2027 request split between industry and government performers?
This page carries the budget justification and the NDAA marks — nothing else. For what Management Innovation Pilots has actually been obligated, the ledger is at hitchintel.com/vendors; for live solicitations, hitchintel.com/opportunities. Both are member surfaces.
Provenance
Cite this page
Sources
FY2027 Office of the Secretary of Defense RDT&E Budget Justification · Exhibits R-2 / R-3 · PE 0604123D8Z (President's Budget PB2027) — and FY2027 NDAA committee marks, as tracked 2026-07-27.
Suggested citation
HitchAI, "Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAO) - Dem/Val Activities (PE 0604123D8Z)," federal budget intelligence, PB2027 vintage. hitchintel.com/programs/0604123D8Z
Machine access
Markdown twin
/programs/0604123D8Z.md · MCP mcp.hitchintel.com → budget_get_program_element, budget_get_cong_marksFY2027 Request
$8.6M
▲ 24% vs FY2026
FY2026 Enacted
$6.9M
No FY2025 funding
FY2025 Actual
$0.0M
Prior year
Acquisition Ecosystem — one RDT&E project inside PE 0604123D8Z. Congressional marks are recorded on the program element, not on a project.
Project 786 — Acquisition Ecosystem — requests $8.6M in FY2027, 77% of the $11.2M requested for program element 0604123D8Z. Year over year it grows 24% against FY2026.
Funding trajectory
Project 786 funding, FY2025–FY2031
Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure. Projects carry the full five-year plan; the activities inside them stop at the budget year.
Actual Enacted Request Outyear (FYDP)
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 0.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 6.9 |
| FY2027 | Request | 8.6 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 7.1 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 7.3 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 7.5 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 7.6 |
Inside the project
1 accomplishment / planned program
The R-2A exhibit. Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan — and they are descriptive: coverage is partial and they do not always add back to the project, so count them, never total them.
Acquisition Ecosystem▲ 24%
FY2025 actual—
FY2026 enacted$6.9M
FY2027 request$8.6M
FY2027 planned work FY 2027 continues operation of the Tradewinds Solution Marketplace as it transitions to the production phase; prototyping AI-enabled solutions to streamline acquisition and speed up contract processes. Continue to offer enterprise-wide contract vehicles, solutions, and tools for DoW acquisition use-cases involving data, analytics, and AI.
FY2026 to FY2027 change FY 2027 increase reflects cyber security support Information system security manager and cyber security risk assessment (ISSM and CRA) of the Acquisition focused cloud, backbone to our acquisition execution toolkit.
FY2026 plans — current year FY 2026 continues CDAO Acquisition Ecosystem activities, including: Acquisition of AI: CDAO practices and offers agile contracting pathways, like the Tradewinds Solution Marketplace (TSM), which leverages existing acquisition authorities by fully aligning with FAR, DFARS, CSO and OTA standards and decentralized ordering vehicles to create easier access to contracting vehicles for DoW AI For Acquisition: CDAO experiments with AI enabled acquisition tools, such as Innovet and Bidscale to create an AI-enabled end-to-end contracting process.
Who's building it
Named performers on project 786
Performers named in the R-3 exhibit under this project. Share is of the project's whole FY2027 R-3 total — the same denominator the program-element split uses, so the two read on one scale and will not sum to 100% when unnamed or government work is in the mix. Budget-justification contract funding, not obligations.
Innovet
$2.0M · 23%
Bidscale
$1.6M · 18%
Pryon
$1.1M · 13%
ASI
$0.4M · 5.1%
Project detail
What project 786 buys
Funding for Acquisition Ecosystem leverages digital and AI technologies to improve acquisition processes and provides training to the acquisition workforce on how to procure digital and AI technologies more effectively. Streamline commercial data and AI company access to DoW contracts via the Tradewinds Acquisition Ecosystem Solution Marketplace and Commercial Solutions Opportunity/Other Transaction Authority vehicles to rapidly field data and AI cutting-edge capabilities to warfighters. The goal is to develop, sustain, and share across the acquisition workforce acquisition approaches that enable greater agility, speed, and mission utility when procuring digital and software-based technologies.
R-3 lines of work
- Product Development
FY2027 Request
$2.6M
▲ 21% vs FY2026
FY2026 Enacted
$2.1M
No FY2025 funding
FY2025 Actual
$0.0M
Prior year
Management Innovation Pilots — one RDT&E project inside PE 0604123D8Z. Congressional marks are recorded on the program element, not on a project.
Project 084 — Management Innovation Pilots — requests $2.6M in FY2027, 23% of the $11.2M requested for program element 0604123D8Z. Year over year it grows 21% against FY2026.
Funding trajectory
Project 084 funding, FY2025–FY2031
Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure. Projects carry the full five-year plan; the activities inside them stop at the budget year.
Actual Enacted Request Outyear (FYDP)
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 0.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 2.1 |
| FY2027 | Request | 2.6 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 3.0 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 10.3 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 12.8 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 13.0 |
Inside the project
1 accomplishment / planned program
The R-2A exhibit. Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan — and they are descriptive: coverage is partial and they do not always add back to the project, so count them, never total them.
Management Innovation Pilots▲ 21%
FY2025 actual$0.0M
FY2026 enacted$2.1M
FY2027 request$2.6M
FY2027 planned work CDAO will continue efforts to maintain Management Innovation and meet/create goals of the project. The aim is to continue research and development of AI in a way that can help DoW management, acquisition, cyber security, and other areas be more efficient while also being a robust and reliable system for the department. These developments aim to streamline tasks, reduce overall department spending and mitigate risk in tasks that would previously be seen as a security risk to automate. .
FY2026 to FY2027 change Increase represents projected management innovation efforts.
FY2026 plans — current year Funding will extend some management projects from FY 2025 FY 2026 into FY 2027 based on success criteria and impact.
FY2025 accomplishments CDAO selected pilot projects based on Congressional intent for Management Innovation, namely to: 1) improve financial management and auditability of DoD, 2) replace and/or streamline human tasks, and 3) improve efficiency of the Department. This project enables CDAO to continue and expand the spirit of the Management Innovation Pilot to mature key efforts and/or meet new goals. Pilot projects include using data and AI to accelerate a clean audit in DoD, speed up acquisition and cyber security processes, digitize budget management, and improve background investigations.
Who's building it
Named performers on project 084
Performers named in the R-3 exhibit under this project. Share is of the project's whole FY2027 R-3 total — the same denominator the program-element split uses, so the two read on one scale and will not sum to 100% when unnamed or government work is in the mix. Budget-justification contract funding, not obligations.
Management Innovation Pilots
$2.6M · 100%
Project detail
What project 084 buys
This is a continuation of the initial FY 2024 Management Innovation Pilot (H.R. 118-121) and seeks to improve warfighter lethality and DoW efficiency by using data, analytics, and AI to modernize business practices across CDAO and DoW.
R-3 lines of work
- Product Development
FY2027 Request
$0.0M
No FY2026 funding
FY2026 Enacted
$0.0M
▼ 100% vs FY2025
FY2025 Actual
$330.3M
Prior year
AI/ML Demonstration & Validation — one RDT&E project inside PE 0604123D8Z. Congressional marks are recorded on the program element, not on a project.
Project 067 — AI/ML Demonstration & Validation — requests — in FY2027, 0.0% of the $11.2M requested for program element 0604123D8Z.
Funding trajectory
Project 067 funding, FY2025–FY2026
Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure. Projects carry the full five-year plan; the activities inside them stop at the budget year.
Actual Enacted
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 330.3 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 0.0 |
Inside the project
1 accomplishment / planned program
The R-2A exhibit. Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan — and they are descriptive: coverage is partial and they do not always add back to the project, so count them, never total them.
Foundational Enablers Efforts
FY2025 actual$330.3M
FY2026 enacted—
FY2027 request—
FY2025 accomplishments In FY 2025, Foundational Enablers continue and expand upon FY 2024 activities. Details follow. • Acquisition Ecosystem funding supports: - TradewindAI.com: Webpage of news & offerings - Tradewind Portal: OT Challenge postings, Requests for Information, Communities of interest (inc. TryAI CSO, AI Talent 2.0 BOAs, and other vehicles) - Solutions Marketplace: A centralized, video repository of readily awardable AI/ML, digital and data analytics solutions - Contract Writing System/AcqBot: Prototype project which applies AI, natural language processing (NLP), and robotic process automation (RPA) in a practical manner and intuitive workflow to assist with requirements generation - Public Private…
Project detail
What project 067 buys
CDAO’s Foundational Enablers efforts in this PE include: • Acquisition Ecosystem: provides rapid, effective, and efficient acquisition support to CDAO and DoW at large (through decentralized offerings) by providing contracting capabilities, guidance, and training for the acquisition workforce on AI. The CDAO Acquisition Ecosystem provides several types of contracting mechanisms / vehicles such as CSOs, OTAs, BOAs, and BPAs; expedited contracting processes; and AI-driven tools to streamline federal procurements. (Moves to project code 786 in FY 2026.) • Advana Platform: Advana is DoW’s enterprise data acquisition, data operations, and data analytics capabilities within a government and military-owned environment hosted in DoW and NGA clouds, as well as available at the edge. Advana delivers 24/7 continuous operations on NIPR, SIPR, JWICS, SUNet, and Edge environments and supports a rapidly growing user community that now exceeds 100,000+ users, 500+ data connections, hosts the DoW Federated Data Catalog, hosts the DSD Pulse applications, and provides a DevSecOps pipeline to field 3rd party applications on DoW data. The “Creating Data Advantage” Memo, signed by DSD on 5 May 2021, directs that “The Advancing Analytics (Advana) platform is the single enterprise authoritative data management and analytics platform for the Secretary of War, Deputy Secretary of War, and Principal Staff Assistants (PSAs), with inputs from all DoW Components”. (Moves to new BA08 Pilot PE 0608140D8Z in FY 2026) • Secure Unclassified Network (SUNet) Enterprise: SUNet is a National Security System used as an AI development environment and multi-national collaboration & data sharing environment for non-traditional partners (e.g., Sky Blue). Its unique capabilities include: - Unique and Extensible US Government Platform: Designed as an Open Architecture, Non-Proprietary USG capability - Internet accessible, GIG-Waiver precludes special hardware/software required to access, alternative MFA - Supports commercial, non-traditional development, and non-CAC multi-national partners; government (IL-5) and Industry Data Protection; Hybrid, On-Prem, Multi-cloud Enterprise.
R-3 lines of work
- Product Development