What project 645350 buys
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.
- Product Development
- Support
- Test and Evaluation
- Management Services
Project 645350 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.
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 85.6 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 14.3 |
| FY2027 | Request | 41.7 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 57.4 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 58.4 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 59.5 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 65.4 |
3 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.
- Continue to execute Air Force CSAT Blue Horizons Class XII Projects, developing candidate solutions to the Academic Year 2027 strategic dilemma posed by CSAF. Solutions will address the Homeland Defense, LRKC, Counter-HVAA, and Counter-Surface Action Group missions. - Conduct rapid experimentation to evaluate new capabilities and…
Read the FY2027 plan →FY2027 planned work - Continue to develop and mature the USNORTHCOM RDT&E and CoE program to provide innovative solutions and potential capabilities for decision-makers. Leverage a robust, scalable HPC infrastructure to address urgent operational needs through comprehensive experimentation targeting key mission gaps. Conduct modeling, simulation, and experimentation to support USNORTHCOM's role as the DoW Homeland Defense C-sUAS Synchronizer, to improve awareness and detection of adversary activities across the AOR.
FY2026 to FY2027 change - FY 2027 funding increased compared to FY 2026 by $0.128 million. This increase is due to inflation.
FY2026 plans — current year - Continuing to develop and mature the USNORTHCOM RDT&E and CoE program to provide innovative solutions and potential capabilities for decision-makers. Leverage a robust, scalable HPC infrastructure to address urgent operational needs through comprehensive experimentation targeting key mission gaps. Conduct modeling, simulation, and experimentation to support USNORTHCOM's role as the DoW Homeland Defense C-sUAS Synchronizer, to improve awareness and detection of adversary activities across the area of responsibility (AOR).
FY2026 plans — current year - Hawkeye Experimentation Campaign transitioned to Project 645352 Architecture Design and Evaluation in FY 2026.