What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 657009 of PE 1206442SF. 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.
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 data from proliferated sensors. Develop intelligent automated ground processing and operator Common Operating Picture (COP) solutions that ultimately put the operator on-the-loop instead of in-the-loop. More specifically, automate target extraction, typing, and characterization with a confidence level that will enable lower priority targets to be released and reported automatically when operators become overwhelmed, enabling operators to focus on higher priority targets. Data Processing & Analytics will also continue to enhance methods of generating Two Dimensional (2D) monotracks and fused Three Dimensional (3D) tracks to type and characterize Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) events more precisely. In addition, Data Processing & Analytics will explore new ways to extract targets and deliver capabilities for extracting and typing targets from raw OPIR data. These efforts will support long-term objectives of transitioning new solutions to onboard (in orbit) processing to more fully exploit proliferated sensor investments while simultaneously mitigating challenges associated with large volumes of data overwhelming ground systems and operators. Data Processing & Analytics will leverage and enhance modeling and simulation tools, such as the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) Sensor and Scene Emulation Tool (ASSET) to emulate Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) data from future proliferated sensors using high fidelity payload models. These efforts will enable OPIR Tools, Applications, and Processing (TAP) Lab to develop and test Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning (AI/ML) solutions before actual sensor data becomes available. Execute larger Development, Security, Operations (DevSecOps) infrastructure investments to include development and delivery of a hybrid on-prem/cloud environment to fully support exploitation of projected proliferated sensor data, host associated ML operations and provide fast access to curated data object storage for solution implementation, enabling a seamless Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline for capability deployment to the program of record. Rapidly respond to implement system resiliency and situational awareness necessary to operate in the contested space domain. Activities may include, but are not limited to program office support, studies, technical analysis, experimentation, risk reduction, prototyping, and activities that may leverage commercial, U.S. Government partnership, and international opportunities to respond to existing and emerging adversarial threats with speed and agility.
FY 2027 decreased due to reduction of TAP Lab and OBAC Support Services (TLOSS) activities.
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.
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 data from proliferated sensors. Develop intelligent automated ground processing and operator Common Operating Picture (COP) solutions that ultimately put the operator on-the-loop instead of in-the-loop. More specifically, automate target extraction, typing, and characterization with a confidence level that will enable lower priority targets to be released and reported automatically when operators become overwhelmed, enabling operators to focus on higher priority targets. Data Processing & Analytics will also continue to enhance methods of generating Two Dimensional (2D) monotracks and fused 3D tracks to type and characterize Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) events more precisely. In addition, Data Processing & Analytics will explore new ways to extract targets and deliver capabilities for extracting and typing targets from raw OPIR data. These efforts will support long-term objectives of transitioning new solutions to onboard (in orbit) processing to more fully exploit proliferated sensor investments while simultaneously mitigating challenges associated with large volumes of data overwhelming ground systems and operators. Data Processing & Analytics will leverage and enhance modeling and simulation tools, such as the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) Sensor and Scene Emulation Tool (ASSET) to emulate OPIR data from future proliferated sensors using high fidelity payload models. These efforts will enable OPIR Tools, Applications, and Processing (TAP) Lab to develop and test Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) solutions before actual sensor data becomes available. Execute larger Development, Security, Operations (DevSecOps) infrastructure investments to include development and delivery of a hybrid on-prem/cloud environment to fully support exploitation of projected proliferated sensor data, host associated Machine Learning (ML) operations and provide fast access to curated data object storage for solution implementation, enabling a seamless Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline for capability deployment to the program of record. Rapidly respond to implement system resiliency and situational awareness necessary to operate in the contested space domain. Activities may include, but are not limited to program office support, studies, technical analysis, experimentation, risk reduction, prototyping, and activities that may leverage commercial, U.S. Government partnership, and international opportunities to respond to existing and emerging adversarial threats with speed and agility.
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 | 93.2 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 83.9 |
| FY2027 | Request | 78.1 |
This activity is 44% of project 657009's FY2027 request and 37% of PE 1206442SF'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.
5 activities in project 657009
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.