# Project 986 — Major Operational Test Instrumentation

**Program element:** 0604759A — Major T&E Investment  
**Project:** 986  
**Component:** U.S. Army  
**Appropriation:** 2040 — RDT&E, Army  
**Budget Activity:** 6 — RDT&E Management Support  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604759A/986  
**Parent:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604759A

## Summary

Project 986 — Major Operational Test Instrumentation requests $14.0M in FY2027, 13% of the $106.1M requested for program element 0604759A, down 50% on FY2026. 1 R-2A activity decomposes the request.

## Funding profile

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 27.6 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 28.0 |
| FY2027 | Request | 14.0 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 12.6 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 13.5 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 13.5 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 13.7 |

> Estimate types are not summed. This project is one leaf of PE 0604759A; the PE total is the sum of its projects, never added to them.

## What project 986 buys

This project funds the development, acquisition, and integration of major operational test instrumentation for the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command's Operational Test Command and supporting test activities at test and training ranges. Requirements for instrumentation are identified through a long-range survey of project managers, Research Development and Engineering Centers (RDECs), and Battle Laboratories developing future weapon systems and the test programs that support these systems. Project focus is to address Director Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) identified Army test realism shortfalls. Base funding will establish enterprise level business processes and services for test instrumentation to develop, operate, and secure capabilities in accordance with OSW and Army Digital Engineering and Software Modernization Strategies. Efforts will promote synergies between the training and testing enablers to improve product development, integration, and cyber activities, and to promote re-use of common assets and services to meet Army modernization priorities. Projects are designated as a major test program based on their visibility, assessed relative technical risk (medium-high), schedule risk, cost (greater than $1.500 million per year or $7.500 million for the total project) and applicability to other mission areas or services. These projects are technically demanding, state-of-the-art, unique instrumentation assets or suites to meet technology shortfalls, and generally result from development programs managed by a professional project management team. The DOT&E annual report to Congress identified shortfalls in the Army's abilities to create realistic operational environments. The Expeditionary Live Virtual Constructive Command Center (XLCC) project addresses multiple shortfalls identified by DOT&E. XLCC is a portfolio of related development efforts that will deliver a system of systems to provide Test Monitoring & Control (TMC) for the Common Operating Picture (COP) for Exercise Control (EXCON) for the Multi-Domain Operations Environment (MDOE). XLCC will provide Real Time Casualty Assessment (RTCA) and instrumentation suite that delivers a high fidelity, realistic, real-time capability to measure the System Under Test (SUT). XLCC also allows the U.S.

## Activities (R-2A) — 1

| Activity | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 | Move | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expeditionary Live Virtual Constructive Command Center (XLCC) | 7.6 | 13.0 | 14.0 | +7% | [a0](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604759A/986/a0) |

> Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. In the request year they partition this project exactly; in earlier years they can under-cover it.

### Expeditionary Live Virtual Constructive Command Center (XLCC)

Continue to expand and enhance the baseline for an operationally realistic test environment and integrate with other systems and tools; refine Real Time Causality Assessment (RTCA) to include non-kinetic effects and centralized battle damage assessments (BDAs); establish technology refresh plan to maintain current hardware; integration…

Full year-by-year narrative: https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604759A/986/a0

## What is NOT on this page

Congressional marks, the R-2 mission description and acquisition strategy, the industry vs government split of the whole request, and related program elements are recorded at **program-element** grain — an NDAA mark lands on a PE, never on a project. They are at https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604759A.

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Department of the Army RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibits R-2/R-2A/R-3, PE 0604759A project 986 (PB PB2027).
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_program_element(pe="0604759A")`.

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