RDT&E Project · President's Budget PB2027

Leader/Follower

FY2027 Request
$22.2M
▼ 27% vs FY2026
HitchAI read

Project EZ8 — Leader/Follower requests $22.2M in FY2027, 52% of the $43.0M requested for program element 0604622A, down 27% on FY2026. 2 R-2A activities decompose the request, 1 new this cycle. GVSC is the largest named R-3 performer at $0.2M, 0.7% of the project's FY2027 R-3 total.

FY2027 Request
$22.2M
▼ 27% vs FY2026
FY2026 Enacted
$30.3M
▲ 4.4% vs FY2025
FY2025 Actual
$29.0M
Prior year
Project detail

What project EZ8 buys

The Leader Follower (LF) funding line supports the Autonomous Transport Vehicle-System (ATV-S) effort that equips Tactical Wheeled Vehicles with autonomous behaviors. Additionally, the capability gives convoy commanders flexibility to leverage the six levels of automated driving that range from Level 0 (Fully Manual) to Level 5 (Fully Autonomous), and any combination therein to conduct convoy operations. Autonomous driving behaviors enable increased operational efficiency of tactical wheeled vehicles resulting in an increase of sustainment throughput while reducing Soldier exposure to hostile threats. The total cost of the Autonomous Transport Vehicle-System (ATV-S) Middle Tier of Acquisition Rapid Prototyping (MTA-RP) effort is $93.214 million from FY 2023 to FY 2027. The ATV-S MTA-RP program is fully funded across the Future Years Defense Program. FY 2027 RDTE in the amount of $22.232 million funds Phase 3 contract milestone completion of prototypes in support of First Unit Issued (FUI), technical support, software development and program support.

R-3 lines of work
  • Management Services
  • Product Development
  • Support
  • Test and Evaluation
Funding trajectory

Project EZ8 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.

25029.0FY25ACTUAL30.3FY26ENACTED22.2FY27REQUEST22.3FY2822.3FY2922.3FY3022.6FY31
Actual Enacted Request Outyear (FYDP)
Fiscal YearEstimate TypeAmount ($M)
FY2025Actual29.0
FY2026Enacted30.3
FY2027Request22.2
FY2028Outyear22.3
FY2029Outyear22.3
FY2030Outyear22.3
FY2031Outyear22.6
Inside the project

2 accomplishments / planned programs

The R-2A exhibit — the only level of the budget that describes work that has not happened yet. Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only, no five-year plan. 1 of them describes FY2027 work in enough detail to have its own page; the rest are shown here in full. Coverage is partial across the corpus, so count activities, never total them.

FY2025 actual$29.0M
FY2026 enacted$30.3M
FY2027 request$13.5M

FY 2027 Base Plan provides funding to award remaining Phase 3 contract milestones completing the prototype effort in support of First Unit Issued (FUI). Activities funded include Developmental Testing of M-Code hardware and software, technical support, transportation and reversion of test assets, and program support.

Read the FY2027 plan →
Tactical Wheeled Vehicle Leader Follower (Autonomous Transport Vehicle-System) Follow-on PathwayNEW
FY2025 actual
FY2026 enacted
FY2027 request$8.7M

FY2027 planned work FY 2027 funds software development to enhance capabilities, and address Phase 3 - Build Prototypes for First Unit Issued (FUI) corrective actions in support of the Follow-on Acquisition Pathway.

FY2026 to FY2027 change Increase in FY 2027 due to initiation of software development to improve and increase production system capability.

Who's building it

Named performers on project EZ8

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.

GVSC
$0.2M · 0.7%