What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project S400 of PE 1160405BB. 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.
FY 2027 Plans: Continues advancing sUMS platforms through continuous development, testing, and integration of emerging technologies to address the need for unmanned and advanced multi-domain systems that enhance SOF capabilities in denied environments. Efforts include the continued integration of on-board edge computing power to support the integration of autonomous UAS capabilities and secure communication between UGS. Development will be initiated for a common UAS ground control station to reduce operator workload, a specialized UAS to support multi-mission sensor and communication payloads, and man-packable & team-transportable UGS.
Increase of $20.944 supports the development of a common UAS ground control station to reduce operator workload, a specialized UAS to support multi-mission sensor and communication payloads, and man-packable & team-transportable UGS. It enables a comprehensive portfolio of systems ranging from low-cost, mission-specific platforms to highly advanced capable technologies.
FY2025–FY2026: what came before
Prior-year accomplishments and current-year plans from the same exhibit. Context for the FY2027 plan, not a series — an activity partitions its project exactly in the request year, but can under-cover it in earlier years.
FY 2026 Plans: Continue development, test, evaluation, and integration of emerging technologies into multi-domain sUMS platforms including increasing on-board edge computing power and data storage, multi-domain secure communications between robots, and multi-mission payload prototyping for user evaluation and future production. Conduct developmental and operational testing and evaluation of ultra-light, untethered, micro, medium range/medium endurance, and containerized sUAS.
Continue development, test, and integration of Artificial Intelligence /Machine Learning into multi-domain sUMS to improve collaborative autonomy, including increasing on-board edge computing power and data storage, multi-domain secure communications between robots, and multi-mission payload prototyping for user evaluation and future production.
Three years, and no five-year plan
An R-2A activity publishes the prior year, the current year and the budget year. The FYDP outyears exist at project and program-element level and are deliberately absent here rather than inferred. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure.
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 12.9 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 13.3 |
| FY2027 | Request | 34.3 |
This activity is 35% of project S400's FY2027 request and 31% of PE 1160405BB'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.
8 activities in project S400
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.