RDT&E Project · President's Budget PB2027

Space Mod Initiative

Project 657009·PE 1206442SF — Next Generation OPIR·U.S. Space Force·BA5
FY2027 Request
$179.5M
▲ 12% vs FY2026
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Project 657009 — Space Mod Initiative requests $179.5M in FY2027, 86% of the $209.9M requested for program element 1206442SF, up 12% on FY2026. 5 R-2A activities decompose the request, 1 new this cycle. Booz Allen is the largest named R-3 performer at $1.2M, 0.7% of the project's FY2027 R-3 total.

FY2027 Request
$179.5M
▲ 12% vs FY2026
FY2026 Enacted
$160.1M
▲ 0.9% vs FY2025
FY2025 Actual
$158.7M
Prior year
Project detail

What project 657009 buys

Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) Space Modernization Initiative (SMI) (Project 657009): To better enable response to emerging global missile threats, SMI advances critical capabilities and reduces risk through five major thrust areas: Demonstrations/Prototypes, Technology Maturation, Data Processing & Analytics, Wide Field of View (WFOV) On-Orbit Testbed Mission Integration, and Capability Exploitation, each with a flagship investment. Demonstrations rapidly prototype new game-changing technologies for the broader mission warning enterprise by delivering ground and on-orbit prototypes. Demonstrations also advance OPIR capabilities for missile warning and tracking ensuring a low risk, smooth transition of advanced technology to future operational systems. Technology Maturation focuses investments on high pay-off critical components to reduce production risks and development costs. Technology Maturation also focuses development on advanced Infrared (IR) sensing optics and electronics, resiliency hardware and software, and on-board processing algorithms and on-board computers. Data Processing & Analytics provides return-on-investment aimed at ingestion and fusion of current and future proliferated sensor program data to enhance missile warning, missile defense, battlespace awareness and technical intelligence mission capabilities. This includes the processing and exploitation of legacy Space Based Infrared Systems (SBIRS) wideband data and its fusion with Wide Field of View (WFOV) Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) wideband sensor. Subsequently, this work will expand to include the ingestion and fusion of WFOV Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Next-Gen GEO, Resilient Missile Warning/Missile Tracking (MW/MT) Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) and other data as it becomes available as well as overcoming the proliferated sensor challenges expected with the large volumes of data and tracks that could overwhelm the enterprise and operators. Data Processing & Analytics will focus on automation and innovation to overcome these challenges to include Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) that reduce cognitive workload reduction of the operators.

R-3 lines of work
  • Product Development
  • Management Services
Funding trajectory

Project 657009 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.

501001502000158.7FY25ACTUAL160.1FY26ENACTED179.5FY27REQUEST189.7FY28191.5FY29195.8FY30199.7FY31
Actual Enacted Request Outyear (FYDP)
Fiscal YearEstimate TypeAmount ($M)
FY2025Actual158.7
FY2026Enacted160.1
FY2027Request179.5
FY2028Outyear189.7
FY2029Outyear191.5
FY2030Outyear195.8
FY2031Outyear199.7
Inside the project

5 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. Each describe FY2027 work in enough detail to have their own page; the rest are shown here in full. Coverage is partial across the corpus, so count activities, never total them.

FY2025 actual$93.2M
FY2026 enacted$83.9M
FY2027 request$78.1M

As the Data Processing & Analytics flagship investment, Space Modernization Initiative (SMI) will exploit emerging Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) solutions to deliver tools necessary to operate the Proliferated Warfighting Architecture and manage the warfighters' cognitive load that will be stressed by the volume of…

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FY2025 actual$30.4M
FY2026 enacted$46.8M
FY2027 request$38.5M

The flagship investment for SMI Demonstrations in FY 2026 matures into FY 2027 as the orbital vehicles manufactured by K2 Space complete integration and are launched into MEO. The current plan is to test Space Development Agency (SDA) v4.0 optical crosslinks in orbit from multiple orbital vehicles in MEO and in a higher orbit (in…

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FY2025 actual$35.2M
FY2026 enacted$10.9M
FY2027 request$24.6M

Through Technology Maturation, Space Modernization Initiative (SMI) will continue to ensure the final components needed to meet Missile Warning/Missile Tracking (MW/MT) Enterprise-wide peak production demands for large format, resilient, high dynamic range infrared Focal Plane Arrays (FPAs) and protective filters and coatings for the…

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FY2025 actual
FY2026 enacted
FY2027 request$20.0M

Capability Exploitation is a new start. In FY 2027, Capability Exploitation will operationalize the first transition of an Space Modernization Initiative (SMI)-derived effort into this construct through the ThinKom phased array antenna initiative. Originally launched to rapidly demonstrate and inform requirements for the Resilient Ground…

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FY2025 actual
FY2026 enacted$18.5M
FY2027 request$18.2M

The Wide Field of View (WFOV) system is an operationally-contributing sensor to the Theater Event System (TES) and the Integrated Tactical Warning and Attack Assessment (ITW/AA) system that is currently positioned over the strategically-important INDOPACOM region. WFOV is also capability that acts as a capability pathfinder ahead of…

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Who's building it

Named performers on project 657009

Performers named in the R-3 exhibit under this project. Share is of the project's whole FY2027 R-3 total — the same denominator the program-element split uses, so the two read on one scale and will not sum to 100% when unnamed or government work is in the mix. Budget-justification contract funding, not obligations.

Booz Allen
$1.2M · 0.7%