What project 630321 buys
This Project is a concentrated effort to improve Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) business practices to accelerate moving emerging technologies into the hands of the warfighter. Vanguard efforts draw the operational, acquisitions, and technology communities together into coherent teams to solve the hard Science & Technology (S&T) problems based on Department of the Air Force (DAF) strategic priorities which do not have readily available emerging technology solutions. Teams follow a disciplined process tailorable to accelerate efforts as deemed necessary by the department. This process (known as WARTECH, for WARfighter / TECHnologist) leverages discrete progress gates to deliver S&T efforts organized as Vanguard Pathfinders, Vanguard Prospects, and Vanguards. This construct organizes these multi-disciplinary, capability-focused investments based on characteristics such as effort maturity, established military utility, technical viability and transitionability. Each have built-in off-ramps to promote transition. The process is overseen by an Executive Committee.
Project 630321 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.
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 0.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 35.4 |
| FY2027 | Request | 20.3 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 21.4 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 21.4 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 22.0 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 22.5 |
4 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. 1 of them describes FY2027 work in enough detail to have its own page; the rest are shown here in full. Coverage is partial across the corpus, so count activities, never total them.
Complete: - Studies of capsule payload flight environments in the air and space domain, from capsule spacedrop to payload delivery. - Analyses of re-entry communications and plasma black-out. Commence: - Testing to inform a quantitative S&T assessment of a multi-ton prototype capsule reentry aerodynamics, re-entry communications during…
Read the FY2027 plan →FY2027 planned work Complete: - Airdrop S&T on the payload mid-air system deployment capabilities from an airdropped container or capsule system. - Quantitative S&T assessment of the rocket detectability and vulnerability, anchored with rocket flight data, to determine implications for military missions; incorporate these details into detailed mission analysis and the capability return on investment.
FY2026 to FY2027 change FY2027 funding decreased compared to $6.272 million due to completion of multiple tasks. FY2027 efforts will complete the remaining tasks.
FY2026 plans — current year Continue: - Tasks for flight readiness and delivery site Concept of Operations (CONOPS) for a demonstration launch of technologies to transport 30 to 100 tons of cargo to an austere site. - Airdrop S&T on the payload mid-air system deployment capabilities from an airdropped container or capsule system. - Quantitative S&T assessment of the rocket detectability and vulnerability, anchored with rocket flight data, to determine implications for military missions; incorporate these details into detailed mission analysis and the capability return on investment. Complete: - Multi-disciplinary S&T to expand commercial rocket capabilities for DoW global cargo delivery on tactical timelines…
FY2027 planned work Complete: - Transition of the system for residual use. - Experimental data analysis and composition of final report. Commence and complete: - Follow-on experimentation needed to validate and finalize planned experiments. - Additional experimentation and testing for Modular Open SatNav Architecture.
FY2026 to FY2027 change FY 2027 funding decreased compared to FY 2026 by $3.687 million due to completing the majority of final tasks for on-orbit experimentation and operations in FY 2026. Funding in FY 2027 is to finalize and complete any remaining S&T tasks before transitioning to mission partners for residual ops, training, and additional R&D as an augmentation to an operational system.
FY2026 plans — current year Continue: - Transition of the system for residual use. - Experimental data analysis and composition of final report. Complete: - On-orbit experimentation, including multiple simulated operational test events through both receivers in the field and on-orbit transmitted signals. - Experimentation of defined mission objectives.
FY2027 planned work Continue: - Spaceflight experiment on multi-agent autonomy and on-orbit refueling capabilities to demonstrate dynamic space operations capabilities and advanced on-board autonomy. - Development of next-generation Space Domain Awareness technologies to augment operators and improve timeliness and throughput. - Development of space data layer technologies and processing techniques to maximize use of new and existing on-orbit assets. Commence: - Activities for an innovative and game-changing weapon concept for countering an emerging and highly critical threat by near peer adversaries. - Activities advancing mission payload capabilities designed for rapid fielding in highly contested…
FY2026 to FY2027 change FY 2027 decreased compared to FY 2026 by $0.760 million due to minor programmatic adjustments to the DAF Science and Technology portfolio
FY2026 plans — current year Continue: - Efforts to de-risk the maturation of resilient space architectures, components, and systems. - Continue efforts to increase space-systems autonomy and improve processing and exploitation of space-based data sources. - Spaceflight experiment demonstrating multi-agent satellite operation, on-orbit refueling, and advanced rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking capability-Initiate development of next-generation Space Domain Awareness technologies to augment operators and improve timeliness and throughput. - Development of space data layer technologies and processing techniques to maximize use of new and existing on-orbit assets.