# Project 3238 — Threat Engineering

**Program element:** 0605863N — RDT&E Ship & Aircraft Support  
**Project:** 3238  
**Component:** U.S. Navy  
**Appropriation:** 1319 — RDT&E, Navy  
**Budget Activity:** 6 — RDT&E Management Support  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0605863N/3238  
**Parent:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0605863N

## Summary

Project 3238 — Threat Engineering requests $18.0M in FY2027, 11% of the $170.7M requested for program element 0605863N, down 9.5% on FY2026. 1 R-2A activity decomposes the request.

## Funding profile

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 20.5 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 19.9 |
| FY2027 | Request | 18.0 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 18.5 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 18.8 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 19.1 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 19.2 |

> Estimate types are not summed. This project is one leaf of PE 0605863N; the PE total is the sum of its projects, never added to them.

## What project 3238 buys

The Threat Engineering program assesses the current and future threat environment and works in coordination with the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) to develop, produce, and evolve digital threat engineering models in support of test and evaluation (T&E) requirements. NAVSEA requires comprehensive, validated threat modeling and simulation (M&S) products to dynamically and responsively interact with surface ship air defense systems and subsystems to allow for a performance evaluation in an operationally realistic environment. These threat M&S products, called Acquisition Threat Engineering Products (ATEP), must contain the details, features, and components necessary to react with the Blue air defense systems as the actual threats will with, deployed air defense systems to provide a comprehensive, high-confidence evaluation of Blue system capabilities. The successful and rigorous end-to-end evaluation of surface ship combat systems, to include the component systems, are required before capability and ship baselines can be delivered to the warfighter. ATEPs are valid T&E assets that satisfy Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) and Operational Test & Evaluation Force (OPTEVFOR) requirements in both Modeling and Simulation (M&S) testbed and at-sea configurations. ATEPs satisfy OPTEVFOR's threat model requirement for fidelity commensurate with the Blue-force system representations and contain intel-derived lethality/vulnerability data, physics-based six degrees-of-freedom models, reactive seekers and guidance, and other engineering data. ATEPs are necessary to evaluate mandatory ship Key Performance Parameters (KPP), including operational effectiveness and suitability. ATEPs reduce Navy operational testing (OT) costs by enabling portions of OT to be conducted via M&S, increasing requirements coverage and avoiding the costs of targets and weapons that would ordinarily be required to conduct OT solely via live fire events. As each threat system is unique, the ATEP representation of each must include the features of specific threats, such as electronic countermeasures (ECM), active countermeasures, communications links, electronic counter-countermeasures (ECCM).

## Activities (R-2A) — 1

| Activity | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 | Move | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Threat Engineering | 20.5 | 19.9 | 18.0 | −10% | [a0](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0605863N/3238/a0) |

> Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. In the request year they partition this project exactly; in earlier years they can under-cover it.

### Threat Engineering

Sustainment: -Continue Support and Sustainment (S&S) of 15 Threat Models that remain in continued use. Periodic refinement and update of models are required due to continued evolving threats. Development and Integration: -Continue to provide support for the integration and use of threat products (ATEP) in various combat system testbeds…

Full year-by-year narrative: https://hitchintel.com/programs/0605863N/3238/a0

## What is NOT on this page

Congressional marks, the R-2 mission description and acquisition strategy, the industry vs government split of the whole request, and related program elements are recorded at **program-element** grain — an NDAA mark lands on a PE, never on a project. They are at https://hitchintel.com/programs/0605863N.

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Department of the Navy RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibits R-2/R-2A/R-3, PE 0605863N project 3238 (PB PB2027).
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_program_element(pe="0605863N")`.

*HitchAI is an independent intelligence service, not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense. Budget figures are requests/estimates, not obligations.*