What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 2573 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.
Efforts will continue to support development, integration and test of Block 4 capabilities in the Training System with a focus on accelerating equivalent capability maturity between the Training System and other elements of the Air System and preparing relevant capability upgrades (Pilot Training, Maintainer Training, Instructional Products) for release to the fleet in FY2028. Additionally, the Production RunTime Server (PRTS) will complete critical development, integration and test activities required to enable TR-3 training capabilities. The Distributed Mission Trainer (DMT) Program will continue with development activities to ensure DMT support across US networks and are in-line with overall Air System Capability to include certified Cross Domain Solutions (CDS) to enable fully integrated DMT across the F-35 Services. Within the Live-Virtual-Constructive (LVC) portfolio, requirements derivation and planning activities for Enhanced Embedded Training will continue to evolve to support the US Service's LVC integrated training environment. Training System lab infrastructure assets will be configured to enable current and future Training System development activities across the portfolio. Effects Based Simulation, FENIX (F-35 Emulated Non-OFP Interoperability Xperience), will continue design, development, and integration activities to support requirements analysis and pilot training tasks.
Considering FY2027 mandatory funding in addition to discretionary, the increase from FY2026 to FY2027 is due to accelerated efforts to close the development gap between Training Systems and Air Vehicle Mission Systems to achieve improvement in delivering an aligned Air System to the warfighter which is required to ensure mission readiness.
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.
Efforts will continue to support development, integration and test of Block 4 capabilities in the Training System with a focus on equivalent capability maturity between the Training System and other elements of the Air System and preparing relevant capability upgrades (Pilot Training, Maintainer Training, Instructional Products) for release to the fleet in FY2027. Additionally, the Production RunTime Server (PRTS) will continue critical development, integration and test activities required to enable TR-3 training capabilities. The Distributed Mission Trainer (DMT) Program will continue with development activities to ensure DMT support across US networks and are in-line with overall Air System Capability to include certified and exportable Cross Domain Solutions (CDS) to enable fully integrated DMT across the F-35 Enterprise. Within the Live-Virtual-Constructive (LVC) portfolio, requirements derivation and planning actives for Enhanced Embedded Training will continue to evolve to support the US Service's LVC integrated training environment. Training System lab infrastructure assets will be configured to enable current and future Training System development activities across the portfolio. Effects Based Simulation (EBS) will continue design, development, and integration activities to support requirements analysis and pilot training tasks.
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 | 12.3 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 18.9 |
| FY2027 | Request | 20.2 |
This activity is 56% of project 2573's FY2027 request and 4.3% 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.
3 activities in project 2573
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.