What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 2569 of PE 0604840M. 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.
DFC will provide flight test support for Block 4 capabilities and weapons testing to accelerate delivery of weapons, software, and carrier operating envelopes to the Services. Continues annualized equipment recapitalization of ground support equipment along with technology refresh and specific lab equipment replacement and modernization efforts to remain representative of Block 4 capabilities. These efforts will sustain, replace, upgrade, and modify test infrastructure hardware and software.
When considering the FY2027 mandatory funding in addition to discretionary funding, the increase from FY2026 to FY2027 is due to cost inflation factors, increased weapons testing and Block 4 capability testing, additional sustainment support for DT aircraft, Development Test Viability modifications support, support for Service-unique testing, as well as replacement of ground support equipment and laboratory development.
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.
DFC will provide flight test support for Block 4 capabilities and weapons testing to accelerate delivery of weapons to the Services. Continues annualized equipment recapitalization of ground support equipment along with technology refresh and specific lab equipment replacement and modernization efforts to remain representative of Block 4 capabilities. These efforts will sustain, replace, upgrade, and modify test infrastructure hardware and software.
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 | 45.7 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 44.5 |
| FY2027 | Request | 36.0 |
This activity is 25% of project 2569's FY2027 request and 7.7% of PE 0604840M'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.
5 activities in project 2569
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.