Project DP1
$82.9MFY2027 request NEWHIMARS Extended Range Demo (HERD)
FY2025 actual—
FY2026 enacted—
FY2027 request$82.9M
Management ServicesProduct DevelopmentTest and Evaluation
FY2027 Request
$82.9M
▲ 232% vs FY2026
FY2026 Enacted
$25.0M
No FY2025 funding
FY2025 Actual
$0.0M
Prior year
Roll-up of 2 projects. Projects are the summable leaves — the PE total is their sum, never added to it.
For fiscal year 2027, the U.S. Army is requesting $82.9M for Hypersonics under RDT&E program element 0604182A, up 232% over FY2026.
Funding trajectory
Funding profile, FY2025–FY2031
Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure.
Actual Enacted Request Outyear (FYDP)
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 0.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 25.0 |
| FY2027 | Request | 82.9 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 107.0 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 38.0 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 28.0 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 28.0 |
Where it sits
Acquisition lifecycle
This program is funded in RDT&E Budget Activity 4 — Advanced Component Development & Prototypes.
Complete
Research
BA 1–2
Complete
Advanced Technology
BA 3
Current
Prototyping
BA 4
Later
Development & Fielding
BA 5–7
Inside the program element
2 projects roll up into PE 0604182A
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 232% overall, which can hide much larger swings below.
Project HX3
—FY2027 request ▼ 100%All Up Round and Canister (AUR+C)
FY2025 actual—
FY2026 enacted$25.0M
FY2027 request—
Management ServicesProduct Development
The whole program
HIMARS is funded on 4 lines across 2 appropriations
This page shows $82.9M of HIMARS, 9.3% of the program's $891.3M FY2027 request. The rest is appropriated elsewhere.
| Also funded here | Type | Component | FY2027 $M |
|---|---|---|---|
| High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) | Procurement | Army | 745.7 |
| HIMARS Modifications | Procurement | Army | 54.4 |
| HIMARS Product Improvement Program | RDT&E | Army | 8.3 |
| HIMARS total | Army | 891.3 |
Lines whose title names the program. 17 further lines only mention HIMARS 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
$82.9M
House NDAA (HASC)HASC
$82.9M full · +$0
Senate NDAA (SASC)SASC
$82.9M full · +$0
House Approps (HAC-D)HAC_D
$82.9M full · +$0
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.
Castelion
$41.0M · 49%
Program Management Support
$8.3M · 10%
| Where FY2027 funding flows | Share | $M |
|---|---|---|
| Industry primes | 66% | 54.7 |
| Other / unspecified | 34% | 28.2 |
| FY2027 request | 100% | 82.9 |
Program detail
Mission & acquisition strategy
The mission of Blackbeard - Ground Launch (GL) is to attack/neutralize/suppress/destroy using an advanced missile delivered precision fires (seeker based) against time sensitive moving targets and hardened targets at a much-reduced cost per missile than current existing options in the Army inventory. Blackbeard - GL will be an affordable, mass-produced advanced weapon designed for mid-range precision. The Army will leverage advancements in technology, materials, and cost-effective production methods to provide superior capabilities through fast, iterative design cycles, flexible hardware development, and modern manufacturing practices.
In August 2025, the program office awarded a contract to accelerate development and leverage innovation. The contract is a Fixed-Firm-Price (FFP), sole-source, Other Transaction Authority for Prototyping (OTAP) with Castelion Corporation, a non-traditional defense contractor, with a phased scope designed to mitigate risk and provide clear decision points: * Phase 1 (Base): This phase will deliver a prototype proof-of-concept, including a fixed-fin flight demonstration of the existing air-launched, extended-range Blackbeard design from a modified Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) Multiple Launch Rocket System Family of Munitions (MFOM) pod.
Project DP1, HX3 — HIMARS Extended Range Demo (HERD)
- Management Services
- Product Development
- Test and Evaluation
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.
H
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 0604182A 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 Castelion 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 Department of the Army RDT&E Budget Justification · Exhibits R-2 / R-3 · PE 0604182A (President's Budget PB2027) — and FY2027 NDAA committee marks, as tracked 2026-07-27.
Suggested citation
HitchAI, "Hypersonics (PE 0604182A)," federal budget intelligence, PB2027 vintage. hitchintel.com/programs/0604182A
Machine access
Markdown twin
/programs/0604182A.md · MCP mcp.hitchintel.com → budget_get_program_element, budget_get_cong_marksFY2027 Request
$82.9M
President's Budget
HIMARS Extended Range Demo (HERD) — one RDT&E project inside PE 0604182A. Congressional marks are recorded on the program element, not on a project.
Project DP1 — HIMARS Extended Range Demo (HERD) — requests $82.9M in FY2027, 100% of the $82.9M requested for program element 0604182A. It is a new start — no prior-year or current-year money.
Funding trajectory
Project DP1 funding, FY2027–FY2031
Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure. Projects carry the full five-year plan; the activities inside them stop at the budget year.
Request Outyear (FYDP)
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2027 | Request | 82.9 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 107.0 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 38.0 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 28.0 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 28.0 |
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. Opening lines only here — the full year-by-year narrative is on the project page.
FY2025 actual—
FY2026 enacted—
FY2027 request$82.9M
FY 2027 efforts will include the Castelion Flight Termination System (FTS) Implementation which includes labor for design, qualification, testing, program management, and materials for 10 units. The FY 2027 efforts also consist of continuing the Blackbeard - GL Option Award to include a test readiness TEM, Production-Representative…
Read the FY2027 plan →Who's building it
Named performers on project DP1
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.
Castelion
$41.0M · 49%
Program Management Support
$8.3M · 10%
Other Management Support
$5.4M · 6.5%
Project detail
What project DP1 buys
The mission of Blackbeard - Ground Launch (GL) is to attack/neutralize/suppress/destroy using an advanced missile delivered precision fires (seeker based) against time sensitive moving targets and hardened targets at a much-reduced cost per missile than current existing options in the Army inventory. Blackbeard - GL will be an affordable, mass-produced advanced weapon designed for mid-range precision. The Army will leverage advancements in technology, materials, and cost-effective production methods to provide superior capabilities through fast, iterative design cycles, flexible hardware development, and modern manufacturing practices. Blackbeard - GL will offer a complementary but enhanced survivable advanced precision strike capability, utilizing existing Army launcher platforms. Blackbeard - GL is not a replacement to the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapons (LRHW) as it will not reach similar velocities nor range. Key features include integration into modified Multiple Launch Rocket Systems Family of Munitions (MFOM) pods and enhanced target discrimination capabilities. Funding will support development, system flight tests, software validation, and full integration into the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) platform, which will expand HIMARS lethality. Blackbeard - GL is a companion development to the Army's Common Autonomous Multi-Domain Launcher (CAML) effort which holds the potential to replace the base HIMARS launcher platform amongst other launchers. While envisioned as a primary munition for CAML, Blackbeard - GL is designed to be compatible with existing HIMARS platforms as an interim solution. The HIMARS Extended Range Demo (HERD) project supports the Army's Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF) modernization priority by demonstrating the feasibility and performance of integrating a qualified, extended-range Blackbeard - Ground Launch (GL) advanced strike missile into the HIMARS launcher system. This demonstration will assess the potential to achieve a significantly reduced cost for high-speed strike capability complementing existing PrSM capabilities.
R-3 lines of work
- Management Services
- Product Development
- Test and Evaluation
FY2027 Request
$0.0M
▼ 100% vs FY2026
FY2026 Enacted
$25.0M
In law
All Up Round and Canister (AUR+C) — one RDT&E project inside PE 0604182A. Congressional marks are recorded on the program element, not on a project.
Project HX3 — All Up Round and Canister (AUR+C) — requests — in FY2027, 0.0% of the $82.9M requested for program element 0604182A. Year over year it falls 100% against FY2026.
Funding trajectory
Project HX3 funding, FY2026–FY2026
Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure. Projects carry the full five-year plan; the activities inside them stop at the budget year.
Enacted
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | Enacted | 25.0 |
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. Opening lines only here — the full year-by-year narrative is on the project page.
HIMARS Extended Range Demo (HERD)▼ 100%
FY2025 actual—
FY2026 enacted$25.0M
FY2027 request—
FY 2026 dollars will fund a critical fixed-fin flight demonstration using a modified Government Furnished Property MFOM pod. This demonstration will validate key aerodynamic and control surface performance parameters, assess system stability, and collect data essential for refining the Blackbeard - GL design. Furthermore, funding will…
Project detail
What project HX3 buys
The mission of Blackbeard - Ground Launch (GL) is to attack/neutralize/suppress/destroy using an advanced missile delivered precision fires (seeker based) against time sensitive moving targets and hardened targets at a much-reduced cost per missile than currently exists in the Army inventory. Blackbeard - GL will be an affordable, mass-produced advanced weapon designed for mid-range precision. The Army will leverage advancements in technology, materials, and cost-effective production methods to provide superior capabilities through fast, iterative design cycles, flexible hardware development, and modern manufacturing practices. Blackbeard - GL will offer a complementary but enhanced survivable advanced precision strike capability, utilizing existing Army launcher platforms. Blackbeard - GL is not a replacement to the Long Range Hypersonic Weapons (LRHW) as it will not reach similar velocities nor range. The goal of Blackbeard - GL is to deliver approximately 80% of the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) Increment 4 capability at a significantly reduced cost. Key features include integration into modified Multiple Launch Rocket Systems Family of Munitions (MFOM) pods and enhanced target discrimination capabilities. Funding will support development, system flight tests, software validation, and full integration into the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) platform, which will expand HIMARS lethality. Blackbeard - GL is a companion development to the Army's Common Autonomous Multi-Domain Launcher (CAML) effort which holds the potential to replace the base HIMARS launcher platform amongst other launchers. While envisioned as a primary munition for CAML, Blackbeard - GL is designed to be compatible with existing HIMARS platforms as an interim solution.
R-3 lines of work
- Management Services
- Product Development