What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 657120 of PE 1206443SF. 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 funds are required to ensure the successful transition of Space Vehicle (SV)#1 to operational status and preserves the 2027 Initial Launch Capability for SV#2. This includes completing on-orbit testing of SV#1 and maintaining interim contractor operations support throughout the operational acceptance phase; supporting the necessary space-to-ground integration activities; continuation of build and integration efforts for SV#2, encompassing vital processes such as completion of environmental Thermal-Vacuum testing, Acoustic testing and Space Vehicle Final test. Continue integrating the ground system's mission data processing, command and control, and overall integration to support SV#2's operations and the program's ultimate transition to Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution (FORGE). 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 increased by $63.530 million from FY 2026 due to SV#2 environmental Thermal-Vacuum testing, Acoustic testing, Space Vehicle Final testing, and final integration testing. Funds are required to ensure SV#2 meets its 2027 launch date.
FY2026: the year under way
Prior-year accomplishments and current-year plans from the same exhibit. Context for the FY2027 plan, not a series — an activity partitions its project exactly in the request year, but can under-cover it in earlier years.
FY 2026 funds are required to execute launch & on-orbit testing and interim contractor operations support for Space Vehicle (SV)#1, preserve 2027 initial launch capability (ILC) for SV#2, perform space/ground integration activities, and continue build and integration activities for SV#2. Continue executing ground system mission data processing, command and control, and integration development to support SV#1 and SV#2. Conduct system level assembly and test for SV#2, including space-to-ground testing to enable discovery and correction of defects critical to launch. Conduct SV#2 space vehicle baseline test, electromagnetic interference test and acoustic test. Rapidly respond to implement system resiliency and situational awareness necessary to operate in the contested space domain. Activities may include, but are not limited to, program office support, studies, technical analysis, experimentation, risk reduction, prototyping, and activities that may leverage commercial, U.S. Government partnership, and international opportunities to respond to existing and emerging adversarial threats with speed and agility.
Three years, and no five-year plan
An R-2A activity publishes the prior year, the current year and the budget year. The FYDP outyears exist at project and program-element level and are deliberately absent here rather than inferred. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure.
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 458.7 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 422.2 |
| FY2027 | Request | 485.7 |
This activity is 100% of project 657120's FY2027 request and 100% of PE 1206443SF'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.
1 activity in project 657120
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 program-element page.