What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 624846 of PE 1206601SF. 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.
Continue: -Support field demonstrations and on-orbit experiments to characterize the interaction of communication, and position, navigation, and timing signals between the multi-layer, multi-function architectures in contested environments and exercise potential concept of operations. -Build on efforts to leverage Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) to further enable the ability of the United States Space Force to provide Position, Navigation, and Timing Situational Awareness (PNT-SA) to the warfighter. -Continue to conduct experimentation with networking and interoperability of laser comm to enable support to mission partners. -Explore spectrum diversity capabilities for communications and PNT, continuing to look at radio frequency communication above V/W band. -Address outstanding S&T questions associated with operational viability of V/W band comms. Complete: -Space qualification of the advanced clock for Low Earth Orbit (LEO); transition to acquisition orgs and other commercial partners. -Development and initial characterization of Laser Comm ground station at Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB) as a part of the Laser Communications Laboratory. -Efforts on ensemble algorithms, as well as Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) for Space Communication, Positioning, Navigation, & Timing (SCPNT). Commence: -Develop and support cross-agency collaborations on Space Communications and Position, Navigation, Timing. -Characterization, testing, and research to enable PNT-comms convergence; also, continue to evaluate new concepts for this convergence and do associated analysis to validate concepts and characterize feasibility. -Explore novel approaches to networking for space data transport and the tactical comms edge -Coordination with industry/commercial partners to develop pathways to space qualification of precision clocks for MEO, GEO applications -Build on existing analysis to support methods for providing PNT for the SSV; work to design space flight experiment to characterize solution space. -Evaluate the operational feasibility and technical viability of next efforts to provide agile, robust, and resilient Satellite Navigation capabilities for the Joint Force and within the SSV. -Evaluation of and associated research on methods, techniques, technologies for enabling precision time keeping, time synchronization, and time dissemination to/from space and within the SSV for DoW applications. -Capture enterprise needs and explore technology solutions that enable modern approaches to trust, security, encryption, and key dissemination for future military Satellite Communication and Position, Navigation, Timing.
FY 2027 increased compared to FY 2026 by $1.962 million due to increased in-house research support to Space Communications/Positioning, Navigation, & Timing Technologies, adequately aligning manpower to priority DAF S&T efforts. Resources were realigned from Project 621010, Space Survivability & Surveillance, Space Environment Research effort.
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.
Continue: -Developing low probability of intercept and low probably of detection (LPI/LPD), high bandwidth, multi-domain communications for contested and denied environments to include Positioning, Navigation, & Timing (PNT) dissemination with GPS and other systems. -Advancing Laser Communications Laboratory for laser comms & interoperability supporting research and development of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) enhancements to PNT architecture to enhance joint warfighting capabilities. -Supporting field demonstrations and on-orbit experiments to examine the interaction of communication, position, navigation, and timing signals between the multi-layer, multi-function architectures in contested environments and exercise potential Concept of Operations. -Developing enabling technologies and demonstration units to enhance the transition path for advanced clocks and time dissemination. -Developing of ensemble algorithms, as well as Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) for Space Communication, Positioning, Navigation, & Timing (SCPNT). -Utilizing the fielding of quantum-based technologies and testing in relevant environments. -Collaborating with international partners in the development of quantum-based technologies to leverage allied funding and capabilities. -Exploration of through-atmosphere radio frequency communication above V/W band.
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 | 26.2 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 21.8 |
| FY2027 | Request | 23.8 |
This activity is 59% of project 624846's FY2027 request and 10% of PE 1206601SF'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.
2 activities in project 624846
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.