What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 4023 of PE 0604536N. 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.
FY 2027 continues fielding baseline Lionfish production units with spiral software upgrades as required. Funding will provide additional investments in the transition of advanced technologies. Efforts will include continued development and evaluation of artificial intelligence/machine learning algorithms, advanced autonomy behaviors and Automated Target Recognition (ATR) development. In FY27, Lionfish will continue maturing and field the Forward Looking Sonar- 9 inch (FLS-9) for fleet use and deliver increased capability through software updates to the vehicle's operating system and sensor packages, including updates to the FLS ATR algorithms. In FY 2027, funding is required to continue NRE efforts to finalize design, software/hardware integration and test of a Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS).
Increase from FY 2026 to FY2027 is required to continue development and test/evaluation of planned vehicle improvements, while increasing efforts with advanced sensors in support of fielding synthetic aperture sonar designed for a small expeditionary UUV. Additional RDTE funds will also enable increased efforts in ATR, AI/ML, and software development by government and third parties to reduce detect-to-engage timelines and increase Sailor-machine teaming.
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.
FY 2026 continues fielding baseline Lionfish production units. Funding will provide additional investments in the transition of advanced technologies. Efforts will include continued development and evaluation of artificial intelligence/machine learning algorithms, advanced autonomy behaviors and Automated Target Recognition (ATR) development. In FY26, Lionfish will continue maturing the Foward Looking Sonar- 9 inch (FLS-9) for fleet use and deliver increased capability through software updates to the vehicle's operating system and sensor packages, including updates to the FLS ATR algorithms. Conduct Initial Operational Test and Evaluation due to DOT&E oversight list. In FY 2026, funding is required to begin the NRE efforts for design, software/hardware integration and test of a Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS). This program was apart of PE 0604028N in FY26.
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 | 0.0 |
| FY2027 | Request | 10.8 |
This activity is 61% of project 4023's FY2027 request and 6.5% of PE 0604536N'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.
3 activities in project 4023
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.