What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project 68A035 of PE 1208248SF. 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.
Develop software and enabling infrastructure for: Automation and Advanced Processing: Increasing automation in observation processing, orbit determination, uncorrelated track processing, and other key areas to improve efficiency and accuracy in detecting, tracking, and identifying space objects, including closely spaced objects and those in cis-lunar space. Software Development & Integration: Continued development of the Advanced Tracking and Launch Analysis System (ATLAS) software to support a broader range of users (FVEY, non-FVEY, and those requiring higher security levels), along with modernization of current systems and development of new tools such as test, training, and exercise software; launch scenario builder; and maneuver processing. Integration of commercial, contractor, and government applications through incremental software releases. Improved Data Exchange and Messaging: Establishing machine-to-machine interfaces for common Space Domain Awareness (SDA) events (conjunction assessment, rendezvous operations, threat processing), improving integrated messaging and sensor support/tasking/orchestration, and developing a message standard compliant open architecture to support SDA mission. Enhanced Situational Awareness and Resiliency: Implementing system resiliency measures and situational awareness tools to operate in a contested space domain, including integration of commercial capabilities and partnerships. 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. 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 $107.815M due to accelerated development of core SDA applications, ensuring the United States maintains decision superiority by automating threat detection and response in the increasingly congested and contested modern space environment.
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.
Plan and develop a message standard compliant open architecture to support both the Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and Theater Support missions to meet dynamic emerging threats. Develop product support and enhancements for operationally accepted applications, workflows, and capabilities, and SDA collection processing software (observation processing, orbit determination and propagation) necessary to publish the satellite catalog. Establish machine-to-machine interfaces for common and dynamic SDA event processing (Satellite Conjunction Assessment, Rendezvous & Proximity Operations, and Space Threat Processing). Evaluate and implement necessary upgrades to legacy SDA systems to allow integration into the modern SDA suite. Continuously improve integrated messaging and sensor support/tasking capabilities. Scale product support and enhance Theater Support software applications to include Intelligence, Integration, Priorities, and Objectives, tasking and Orders Generation, Status of Forces, Space Effect Coordination, Theater Situational Awareness, and Operational Support. Carry out development, system engineering and contracting efforts to integrate commercial, contractor, and government applications through the release of multiple incremental software capability in FY 2026. 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 | 66.9 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 104.4 |
| FY2027 | Request | 212.2 |
This activity is 60% of project 68A035's FY2027 request and 34% of PE 1208248SF'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 68A035
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.