What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 6606TS of PE 0605807F. 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.
Continue to provide operational support for AFTC test activities. Efforts include Aircraft Ops, Flying Hour Program (FHP), Programmed Depot Maintenance (PDM), depot field teams, contracted services, test equipment and supplies, general operations and maintenance, utilities, Joint Simulation Environment, and Test Pilot School (list not all inclusive). Includes one F-15E PDM and F-35 operations at Edwards and Eglin. Continue to execute increased test aircraft funding for flying hours, operations, and sustainment for F-35, C-130, F-16, F-16 VENOM, B-52, C-12, F-15E, B-2, and T-38 DT aircraft. Includes F-16 flutter modifications and contract support for autonomy/artificial intelligence test capabilities. Significant ramp-up of funds, targeting Hypersonic test capabilities at Eglin AFB, FL. New addition of Long Range Kill Chain funding will see projects begin to plan and execute.
Funding increased $369.566 million due to increase for Long Range Kill Chain ($217.871 million), reduction to T&E Operations including aircraft flying hours (-$35.300 million), phasing and inflation of FY23 hypersonic development adds (approximately +$70.000 million), B-2 restoral (approximately +$14.000 million), JSE (net +$2.000 million), and Project VENOM (approximately +$3.000 million) and various other adjustments.
FY2026: the year under way
Prior-year accomplishments and current-year plans from the same exhibit. Context for the FY2027 plan, not a series — an activity partitions its project exactly in the request year, but can under-cover it in earlier years.
Provide operational support for AFTC test activities. Efforts include Aircraft Ops, Flying Hour Program (FHP), Programmed Depot Maintenance (PDM), contracted services, test equipment and supplies, general operations and maintenance, utilities, and Test Pilot School (list not all inclusive). Begin execution of increased test aircraft funding for flying hours, operations, and sustainment for F-35, C-130, F-16 VENOM, B-52, C-12, and T-38 DT aircraft. Includes contract support for autonomy/artificial intelligence test capabilities. Begin execution of Air Combat Command (ACC)-provided funding in support of Joint Simulation Environment (JSE) integration and validation to improve total system utility, realism, and interoperability. Most notably, this includes the integration of existing real-world ranges and test facilities into the JSE environment.
Three years, and no five-year plan
An R-2A activity publishes the prior year, the current year and the budget year. The FYDP outyears exist at project and program-element level and are deliberately absent here rather than inferred. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure.
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 412.8 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 654.5 |
| FY2027 | Request | 1,024.0 |
This activity is 71% of project 6606TS's FY2027 request and 57% of PE 0605807F'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.
2 activities in project 6606TS
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.