Tech Transition Program

The Prototyping project enables demonstrations of emerging technologies and warfighting concepts in an operational environment to determine and evaluate the competitive advantage against our adversaries, how the technology is integrated into the future fight, and acquisition pathways to deliver warfighter capabilities. Lifecycle prototyping investments focus on three major thrusts: (1) advancing capabilities of legacy weapon systems, (2) militarizing novel, mature commercial technologies, and (3) exploring partnerships with Department of the Air Force (DAF) Portfolio Acquisition Executives (PAEs) to rapidly transition technologies. Prototype project investments that advance capabilities of legacy weapon systems focus on kinetic energy effectors for base defense and expeditionary employment operations, autonomy enhancements, architecture development, and software-defined electronic warfare and communication capabilities. Prototype projects that seek to militarize novel, mature commercial technologies will focus on artificial intelligence, autonomy, cyber warfare capabilities, digital engineering, and novel weapon and aircraft technologies. Other areas may be pursued as the technology landscape evolves. This requirement supports performance of a full financial audit as required by title 10 U.S.C. Chapter 9A, Sec 240-D. This program element may include necessary civilian pay expenses required to manage, execute, and deliver weapon system capability. The use of such program funds would be in addition to the civilian pay expenses budgeted in program element 0605829F, 0605831F, 0605833F, 0604858F, or 0605898F

The Department of Air Force (DAF) Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE) Command, Control, Communications and Battle Management (C3BM) combined the roles of the Chief Architect and the Chief Engineer into a single office called the Architecture and Systems Engineering (ASE). This office is responsible for the technical integrity of the DAF BATTLE NETWORK as efforts integrate Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) capabilities, the rest of the DAF's C2 systems, and other Services' capabilities under Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2). Architecture integration in system-of-systems mission threads and environments is critical to deliberately advancing the DAF's technological edge by informing architecture design, acquisition investments, system requirements for future capabilities, and acquisition baseline updates for current systems. The Operational Response Team (ORT) facilitates quick reaction prototyping and experimentation in response to warfighter-led efforts and new relevant technologies. Providing subject matter expertise to support prototyping and experimentation proposed architectures. Architecture Design and Evaluation and the ORT provide the subject matter expertise to develop mission-focused architectures to enable cross-cutting architecture development across PAEs, Major and Field Commands. Architecture Design and Evaluation analyzes science, technology, research, development, and experimentation enterprises to determine the technical and operational feasibility of new technical concepts Architecture Design and Evaluation is directed by the DAF PAE C3BM with oversight by the Secretary of the Air Force along with the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Chief of Space Operations, and Senior Acquisition Executive. This activity is supported by the Air Force Research Laboratory. This program element may include necessary civilian pay expenses required to manage, execute, and deliver Department of the Air Force Tech Architecture. The use of such program funds would be in addition to the civilian pay expenses budgeted in program element 0605827F, 0605828F, 0605829F, 0605831F, 0605832F, 0605833F, 0605898F, 0606398F, 0605831F and/or 0604858F. In FY 2027, $8.503 million is budgeted in this program for 41 direct Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) civilians.

The Experimentation project funds experimentation campaigns to explore new concepts and their applications in operationally relevant environments and within a system-of-systems warfighting context. Operational Experimentation Campaigns are directly aligned and integrated with Office of the Secretary of War (OSW) and Department of Air Force (DAF) priorities. Concepts and enabling technologies explored in this activity may include but are not limited to target custody; counter-targeting; airborne targeting and tracking; autonomy; spectrum warfare; artificial intelligence; machine learning; expeditionary base defense; agile combat operations; position, navigation, and timing; and joint all-domain operations. These technologies hold great promise; yet their transition to acquisition programs and fielded capabilities is typically hampered due to uncertainties regarding their military utility and organizational adoption. Experimentation campaigns assess hypotheses that new capabilities will deliver decisive competitive advantage against our adversaries in a dynamic threat environment. These campaigns dramatically shorten and reduce the overall cost of the acquisition process by delivering robust information including operational utility assessments, training, tactics, and procedures (TTPs), total life cycle cost estimates, preliminary product support strategy, reliability and maintainability metrics, operational utility assessments and Doctrine, Organization, Training, Materiel, Leadership and Education, Personnel, Facilities and Policy implications. Campaigns reduce follow-on acquisition and implementation risk through early accomplishment of key learning objectives. A key element of the experimentation campaigns is strong stakeholder partnerships and buy-in from senior DAF leadership including the Secretary of the Air Force, HAF/A5/7, HAF/A8, US Space Force Futures and Integration, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, warfighting Major Commands and Combatants Commands (capability recipients/end users), Space and Missile Systems Center, and Air Force Materiel Command (capability developers) that enables rapid transition of capabilities when operational utility, affordability, sustainability, and industrial capacity meet the DAF needs.

The DoW requires counter small, unmanned aircraft system (C-sUAS) defeat options with minimal collateral damage in situations where friendly forces and/or civilians are in close proximity to the threat, or where local regulation does not allow for electronic attack or kinetic effectors that have broad down range impact. Specifically existing solutions are poorly equipped to be effective against higher speed and multiple targets (e.g. salvos or swarms). The funding will directly support Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) Replicator 2 Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) effort to onboard additional low collateral defeat (LCD) options into the Department of the Air Force (DAF) C-sUAS system. Potential options could fall under localized directed energy, kinetic with low-collateral risks, capture/entanglement, localized electronic attack, and/or other novel effectors.