What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project CF6 of PE 0605625A. 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.
The costs encompass the continuation of ongoing efforts under Project Proteus to demonstrate advanced technologies in a relevant operational environment. Additionally, this funding represents the final increment for the Phase 4 efforts associated with the XM30 design maturation, development activities and prototype build. These efforts involve multiple vendors and include hardware and software development, producibility engineering and planning, tooling, data generation, training plan development, and support equipment.
The decrease from FY 2026 to FY 2027 follows the shift in the schedule from prototype build to testing in support of Transformation in Contact (TiC).
FY2025–FY2026: what came before
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.
Costs include continuing XM30 design maturation and development efforts from multiple vendors including hardware and software development, producibility engineering and planning, tooling, data, training plans and support equipment. Costs also include continuing material and labor towards the delivery of sixteen prototypes in support of Transformation in Contact (TiC) required for Preproduction Prove-out Testing and development of Project Proteus to demonstrate advanced technologies in a relevant operational environment. FY 2026 costs also include any contractor furnished test support material and test support labor aligning to requirements per the XM30 Preproduction Prove-out Test schedule. This effort funds the two crew trainer simulators and the associated training, maintenance and operational support.
These costs include the maturation of XM30 Detailed Design Concepts to CDR. Costs include Contractor System Engineering and Program Management, Producibility Engineering and Planning, Development Tooling, Data, Support Equipment Development and Development of a Training Program of Instruction. Costs also include the material for 8 prototypes each from 2 vendors required for Preproduction Prove-Out Testing and initial logistics development.
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 | 347.8 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 269.2 |
| FY2027 | Request | 179.5 |
This activity is 62% of project CF6's FY2027 request and 62% of PE 0605625A'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.
10 activities in project CF6
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 program-element page.