# Project 625018 — Spacecraft Protection Technology

**Program element:** 1206601SF — Space Technology  
**Project:** 625018  
**Component:** U.S. Space Force  
**Appropriation:** 3620F — RDT&E, Space Force  
**Budget Activity:** 2 — Applied Research  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/1206601SF/625018  
**Parent:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/1206601SF

## Summary

Project 625018 — Spacecraft Protection Technology requests $49.1M in FY2027, 21% of the $234.2M requested for program element 1206601SF, up 8.7% on FY2026. 2 R-2A activities decompose the request.

## Funding profile

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 49.4 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 45.2 |
| FY2027 | Request | 49.1 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 50.2 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 51.2 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 52.2 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 53.4 |

> Estimate types are not summed. This project is one leaf of PE 1206601SF; the PE total is the sum of its projects, never added to them.

## What project 625018 buys

This project develops the technologies to perform faster, well-informed decision making for space operations, enhanced mission assurance of critical space services, and integrate space with joint operational picture for protecting United States space assets, in potentially hostile environments, to assure continued space system operation. The project provides transitionable technology and knowledge to enable speed-of-light protection, many-on-many engagement and defense, and new orbit regimes despite growing threat impunity. This project also encompasses efforts to expand the University Consortium for Space Research to address research needs unique to the United States Space Force.

## Activities (R-2A) — 2

| Activity | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 | Move | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Space Control | 23.2 | 23.2 | 25.1 | +8% | [a0](https://hitchintel.com/programs/1206601SF/625018/a0) |
| University Consortium for Space Research | 16.4 | 22.0 | 24.0 | +9% | [a1](https://hitchintel.com/programs/1206601SF/625018/a1) |

> Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. In the request year they partition this project exactly; in earlier years they can under-cover it.

### Space Control

Continue: -Developing sophisticated techniques to detect, identify, track, characterize, and catalog satellites using multi-phenomenology sensing with particular focus on space situational awareness for novel and challenging orbits. -Science & Technology feeding flight experiments that will demonstrate utility of cislunar situational…

Full year-by-year narrative: https://hitchintel.com/programs/1206601SF/625018/a0

### University Consortium for Space Research

Continue: -University led technical efforts under SSTI 2 for In-Space Operations to include inspection technology, multi-arm manipulator, deployable mesh, developing prototype of highly adaptive robotic grasping technologies as well as CubeSat-based flight, berthing, recharging, and refueling technologies. -University led technical…

Full year-by-year narrative: https://hitchintel.com/programs/1206601SF/625018/a1

## What is NOT on this page

Congressional marks, the R-2 mission description and acquisition strategy, the industry vs government split of the whole request, and related program elements are recorded at **program-element** grain — an NDAA mark lands on a PE, never on a project. They are at https://hitchintel.com/programs/1206601SF.

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Department of the Air Force RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibits R-2/R-2A/R-3, PE 1206601SF project 625018 (PB PB2027).
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_program_element(pe="1206601SF")`.

*HitchAI is an independent intelligence service, not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense. Budget figures are requests/estimates, not obligations.*