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Department of Defense
Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Budget Estimates
March 2023
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Defense-Wide Justification Book Volume 1 of 5
Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide
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Table of Volumes
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency............................................................................................................. Volume 1
Missile Defense Agency................................................................................................................................................... Volume 2
Office of the Secretary Of Defense................................................................................................................................. Volume 3
Creating Helpful Incentives To Produce Semi-Conductors (CHIPS) for America.......................................................Volume 3
Chemical and Biological Defense Program....................................................................................................................Volume 4
Defense Contract Audit Agency...................................................................................................................................... Volume 5
Defense Contract Management Agency......................................................................................................................... Volume 5
Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency....................................................................................................... Volume 5
Defense Information Systems Agency............................................................................................................................Volume 5
Defense Logistics Agency................................................................................................................................................Volume 5
Defense Security Cooperation Agency...........................................................................................................................Volume 5
Defense Technical Information Center............................................................................................................................Volume 5
Defense Threat Reduction Agency..................................................................................................................................Volume 5
DoD Human Resources Activity...................................................................................................................................... Volume 5
Operational Test and Evaluation, Defense..................................................................................................................... Volume 5
Space Development Agency............................................................................................................................................ Volume 5
Volume 1 - i
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The Joint Staff................................................................................................................................................................... Volume 5
United States Cyber Command....................................................................................................................................... Volume 5
United States Special Operations Command.................................................................................................................Volume 5
Washington Headquarters Services................................................................................................................................ Volume 5
Volume 1 - ii
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Volume 1 Table of Contents
Comptroller Exhibit R-1.............................................................................................................................................. Volume 1 - v
Program Element Table of Contents (by Budget Activity then Line Item Number)...........................................Volume 1 - xvii
Program Element Table of Contents (Alphabetically by Program Element Title)...............................................Volume 1 - xix
Exhibit R-2s.................................................................................................................................................................. Volume 1 - 1
Volume 1 - iii
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Volume 1 - iv
Volume 1 - v
Volume 1 - vi
Volume 1 - vii
Volume 1 - viii
Volume 1 - ix
Volume 1 - x
Volume 1 - xi
Volume 1 - xii
Volume 1 - xiii
Volume 1 - xiv
Volume 1 - xv
Volume 1 - xvi
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Program Element Table of Contents (by Budget Activity then Line Item Number)
Appropriation 0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide
Line # Budget Activity Program Element Number Program Element Title Page
2 01 0601101E DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES................................................................................... Volume 1 - 1
5 01 0601117E BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE................................................................... Volume 1 - 35
Appropriation 0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide
Line # Budget Activity Program Element Number Program Element Title Page
10 02 0602115E BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY.......................................................................................... Volume 1 - 43
15 02 0602303E INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY..................................................Volume 1 - 53
16 02 0602383E BIOLOGICAL WARFARE DEFENSE................................................................................Volume 1 - 87
20 02 0602702E TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY............................................................................................... Volume 1 - 89
21 02 0602715E MATERIALS AND BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY...........................................................Volume 1 - 113
22 02 0602716E ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY..................................................................................... Volume 1 - 135
Volume 1 - xvii
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Appropriation 0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide
Line # Budget Activity Program Element Number Program Element Title Page
40 03 0603286E ADVANCED AEROSPACE SYSTEMS........................................................................... Volume 1 - 167
41 03 0603287E SPACE PROGRAMS AND TECHNOLOGY....................................................................Volume 1 - 177
60 03 0603739E ADVANCED ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGIES.............................................................Volume 1 - 183
61 03 0603760E COMMAND, CONTROL AND COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS..................................... Volume 1 - 195
62 03 0603766E NETWORK-CENTRIC WARFARE TECHNOLOGY........................................................ Volume 1 - 209
63 03 0603767E SENSOR TECHNOLOGY............................................................................................... Volume 1 - 227
Appropriation 0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide
Line # Budget Activity Program Element Number Program Element Title Page
154 06 0605001E MISSION SUPPORT....................................................................................................... Volume 1 - 239
167 06 0605502E SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH............................................................. Volume 1 - 241
176 06 0605898E MANAGEMENT HQ - R&D............................................................................................. Volume 1 - 245
Volume 1 - xviii
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Program Element Table of Contents (Alphabetically by Program Element Title)
Program Element Title
Program Element
Number Line # BA Page
ADVANCED AEROSPACE SYSTEMS 0603286E 40 03...................................... Volume 1 - 167
ADVANCED ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGIES 0603739E 60 03...................................... Volume 1 - 183
BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE 0601117E 5 01........................................ Volume 1 - 35
BIOLOGICAL WARFARE DEFENSE 0602383E 16 02........................................ Volume 1 - 87
BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY 0602115E 10 02........................................ Volume 1 - 43
COMMAND, CONTROL AND COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS 0603760E 61 03...................................... Volume 1 - 195
DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES 0601101E 2 01..........................................Volume 1 - 1
ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY 0602716E 22 02...................................... Volume 1 - 135
INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY 0602303E 15 02........................................ Volume 1 - 53
MANAGEMENT HQ - R&D 0605898E 176 06...................................... Volume 1 - 245
MATERIALS AND BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY 0602715E 21 02...................................... Volume 1 - 113
MISSION SUPPORT 0605001E 154 06...................................... Volume 1 - 239
NETWORK-CENTRIC WARFARE TECHNOLOGY 0603766E 62 03...................................... Volume 1 - 209
SENSOR TECHNOLOGY 0603767E 63 03...................................... Volume 1 - 227
SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH 0605502E 167 06...................................... Volume 1 - 241
SPACE PROGRAMS AND TECHNOLOGY 0603287E 41 03...................................... Volume 1 - 177
TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY 0602702E 20 02........................................ Volume 1 - 89
Volume 1 - xix
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Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 1 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 1: Basic
Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
Total Program Element
- 424.332 404.370 311.531 - 311.531 358.978 396.651 429.334 462.789 - -
CCS-02: MATH AND
COMPUTER SCIENCES
- 273.345 231.916 179.433 - 179.433 202.697 244.776 265.979 294.634 - -
ES-01: ELECTRONIC
SCIENCES
- 12.926 17.645 12.854 - 12.854 22.678 30.682 32.410 37.410 - -
ES-02: BEYOND SCALING
SCIENCES
- 64.607 70.188 52.004 - 52.004 57.212 44.370 53.540 53.540 - -
MS-01: MATERIALS SCIENCES
- 41.860 53.356 62.934 - 62.934 69.018 69.200 69.782 69.582 - -
TRS-01: TRANSFORMATIVE
SCIENCES
- 31.594 31.265 4.306 - 4.306 7.373 7.623 7.623 7.623 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The efforts described in this Program Element (PE) address the Basic Research associated with the Defense Research Sciences Program that provides the technical
foundation for long-term National Security enhancement through the discovery of new phenomena and the exploration of the potential of such phenomena for Defense
applications. This PE supports the scientific study and experimentation that is the basis for more advanced knowledge and understanding in information, electronic,
mathematical, computer, and materials sciences. This PE also supports innovation and robust transition planning in the technology cycle by working with entrepreneurs
to increase the likelihood that DARPA funded technologies take root in the U.S. and provide new capabilities for national defense.
The Math and Computer Sciences project supports scientific study and experimentation on new mathematical and computational algorithms, models, and mechanisms
in support of long-term national security objectives. Modern analytic and information technologies enable important new military capabilities and drive the productivity
gains essential to U.S. economic competitiveness. Conversely, new classes of threats, in particular threats that operate in or through the cyber and information domain,
put military systems, critical infrastructure, and the civilian economy at risk. This project aims to magnify these opportunities and mitigate these threats by leveraging
emerging mathematical and computational capabilities including artificial intelligence (AI), computational social science, machine learning and reasoning, data science,
quantum science, complex systems modeling and simulation, and theories of computation and programming. The basic research conducted under the Math and
Computer Sciences project will produce breakthroughs that enable new capabilities for national and homeland security.
The Electronic Sciences project is for basic exploration of electronic and optoelectronic devices, circuits, and processing concepts to meet the military's need for near
real-time information gathering, transmission, and processing. In seeking to continue the phenomenal advancement in microelectronics innovation that has characterized
the last few decades, the project will provide DoD with new, improved, or potentially revolutionary device options for accomplishing these critical functions. The resulting
technologies will help maintain knowledge of the enemy, communicate decisions based on that knowledge, and substantially improve the cost and performance of
military systems. Research areas include analog, mixed signal, and photonic circuitry for communications and other applications; alternative computer architectures;
Volume 1 - 1
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Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 2 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 1: Basic
Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
and magnetic components to reduce the size of Electromagnetic (EM) and sensing systems. Other research could support field-portable electronics with reduced power
requirements, and new approaches to nanometer-scale structures, molecules, and devices.
The Beyond Scaling Sciences project supports investigations into materials, devices, and architectures to provide continued improvements in electronics performance
with or without the benefit of Moore's Law (silicon transistor scaling). Within the next ten years, traditional scaling will start to encounter the fundamental physical limits
of silicon, requiring fresh approaches to new electronic systems. Over the short term, DoD will therefore need to unleash circuit specialization in order to maximize
the benefit of traditional silicon. Over the longer term, DoD and the nation will need to engage the computer, material, and mechanical sciences to explore electronics
improvements through new non-volatile memory devices that combine computation and memory, and new automated design tools using machine learning. Other
memory devices could also leverage an emerging understanding of the physics of magnetic states, electron spin properties, topological insulators, or phase-changing
materials. Additionally, new design and manufacturing advances for three-dimensional microelectronics integration will underpin continued performance improvements
as silicon transistor scaling plateaus. Beyond Scaling programs addressed fundamental exploration in each of these areas.
The Materials Sciences project provides the fundamental research that underpins the design, development, assembly, and optimization of advanced materials, devices,
and systems for DoD applications in areas such as robust diagnostics and therapeutics, novel energetic materials, and complex hybrid systems.
The Transformative Sciences project supports research and analysis that leverages converging technological forces and transformational trends in information-
intensive subareas of life sciences, data sciences, and manufacturing. Innovative technologies developed in this project will address multiple DoD challenges such as
identification of and adaptation to emerging threats, access to DoD relevant critical materials for manufacturing and warfighter readiness. Successful programs in this
project will integrate diverse disciplines and engineer complex biological systems to detect novel threat agents, accelerate warfighter injury recover, and develop new
platform materials and manufacturing processes.
B. Program Change Summary ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 Base FY 2024 OCO FY 2024 Total
Previous President's Budget 443.842 401.870 396.555 - 396.555
Current President's Budget 424.332 404.370 311.531 - 311.531
Total Adjustments -19.510 2.500 -85.024 - -85.024
• Congressional General Reductions 0.000 -10.500
• Congressional Directed Reductions 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Rescissions 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Adds 0.000 13.000
• Congressional Directed Transfers 0.000 0.000
• Reprogrammings -2.406 0.000
• SBIR/STTR Transfer -17.104 0.000
• TotalOtherAdjustments - - -85.024 - -85.024
Volume 1 - 2
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Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 3 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 1: Basic
Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
Congressional Add Details ($ in Millions, and Includes General Reductions)
FY 2022 FY 2023
Project: CCS-02: MATH AND COMPUTER SCIENCES
Congressional Add: AI Cyber Data Analytics (AI) - Congressional Add
10.000 -
Congressional Add: AI Cyber Data Analytics (Cyber) - Congressional Add
10.000 -
Congressional Add: AI Cyber Data Analytics (Data) - Congressional Add
10.000 -
Congressional Add: University Partnerships for AI Development - Congressional Add
- 9.000
Congressional Add: Advanced Predictive Analytics for Supply Chain Risk Management - Congressional Add
- 4.000
Congressional Add Subtotals for Project: CCS-02
30.000 13.000
Project: ES-02: BEYOND SCALING SCIENCES
Congressional Add: ERI 2.0 Congressional Add
20.000 -
Congressional Add Subtotals for Project: ES-02
20.000 -
Congressional Add Totals for all Projects
50.000 13.000
Change Summary Explanation
FY 2022: Decrease reflects SBIR/STTR transfer and reprogrammings.
FY 2023: Increase reflects Congressional adds for Advanced Predictive Analytics for Supply Chain Risk Management and University Partnerships for AI
Development offset by a Congressional reduction to Reduce Carryover.
FY 2024: Decrease reflects completion of several basic research programs in FY 2023 including Safe Documents (SafeDocs), Learning with Less Labeling
(LwLL), Ultra-Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (UWBG), Guaranteed Architectures for Physical Security (GAPS) and Biology for Security (BIOSEC) as well as a
shift from development and testing to demonstration and evaluation activities in the Foundational Artificial Intelligence (AI) Science, Guaranteeing AI Robustness
against Deception (GARD), Machine Common Sense (MCS) and Rapid Healing for Warfighter Injuries programs.
Volume 1 - 3
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Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 4 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
CCS-02 / MATH AND COMPUTER
SCIENCES
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
CCS-02: MATH AND
COMPUTER SCIENCES
- 273.345 231.916 179.433 - 179.433 202.697 244.776 265.979 294.634 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The Math and Computer Sciences project supports scientific study and experimentation on new mathematical and computational algorithms, models, and mechanisms
in support of long-term national security objectives. Modern analytic and information technologies enable important new military capabilities and drive the productivity
gains essential to U.S. economic competitiveness. Conversely, new classes of threats, in particular threats that operate in or through the cyber and information domain,
put military systems, critical infrastructure, and the civilian economy at risk. This project aims to magnify these opportunities and mitigate these threats by leveraging
emerging mathematical and computational capabilities including artificial intelligence (AI), computational social science, machine learning and reasoning, data science,
quantum science, complex systems modeling and simulation, and theories of computation and programming. The basic research conducted under the Math and
Computer Sciences project will produce breakthroughs that enable new capabilities for national and homeland security.
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Title: Foundational Artificial Intelligence (AI) Science
Description: The Foundational Artificial Intelligence (AI) Science thrust is developing a fundamental scientific basis for
understanding and quantifying performance expectations and limits of AI technologies. Current AI technologies are challenged
in handling uncertainty and incompleteness of training protocols and data. This has prevented the successful integration of AI
technology into many transformative DoD applications. To address these limitations, the Foundational AI Science thrust will focus
on the development of new learning architectures that enhance AI systems' ability to handle uncertainty, reduce vulnerabilities,
and improve robustness for DoD AI systems. One focus area of this thrust is the ability to detect and accommodate novelty - i.e.,
violations of implicit or explicit assumptions - in AI applications. Another focus area is the development of a model framework for
quantifying performance expectations and limits of AI systems as trusted human partners and collaborators. A third focus area is
the development of new tools and methodologies that enable AI approaches for accelerated scientific discovery. The technology
advances achieved under the Foundational AI Science thrust will ultimately remove technical barriers to exploiting AI technologies
for scientific discovery, human-AI collaboration, accommodating novelties, and other DoD relevant applications.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Demonstrate fully autonomous, closed-loop feedback between experimental platforms and AI models to facilitate process
optimization and inverse molecular design.
- Identify molecular design domains of greatest applicability for developed AI models and data representations.
- Design baseline computational approaches for quantifying the alignment of an algorithmic decision maker with a reference
group of human decision makers.
69.550 37.692 28.771
Volume 1 - 4
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PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 5 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
CCS-02 / MATH AND COMPUTER
SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Extend novelty generators and novelty-robust AI techniques to create and identify rapidly and respond appropriately to new
environments, goals, and events.
- Demonstrate and evaluate novelty generators and novelty-robust AI techniques compared to non-robust methods performing on
known tasks incorporating new rules, goals, and events.
- Develop techniques for quantifying the uniqueness and stability of functions learned over manifolds, and formulate approaches
for using these techniques to address issues related to adversarial, explainable, and trustworthy AI.
- Further refine hybrid artificial intelligence (AI) models of climate processes, and explore their advantages over conventional
models for rapid scenario analysis as well as for global and regional predictions.
- Apply and evaluate model performance against simulated climate intervention approaches.
- Develop AI negotiation agents for multi-party interaction environments that include untrustworthy partnerships and dynamic
goals.
- Extend signature approaches for information deception tools in text, audio, and image generation to support additional machine
learning attack attribution capabilities.
- Identify scenarios, collect and analyze historical online and offline influence campaign pathways, and learn pathway models and
patterns.
- Develop foundational AI science, advance the state of the art in AI engineering, and create human-machine teaming
approaches that support trustworthy AI for mission- and safety-critical domains.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Evaluate algorithmic decision maker's ability to align with a reference group of human decision makers, and validate baseline
computational approaches for quantifying the measurement of alignment and the impact of alignment on trust of algorithmic
decision makers.
- Continue to develop foundational AI science, advance the state of the art in AI engineering, and create human-machine teaming
approaches that support trustworthy AI for mission- and safety-critical domains.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects a shift in focus from technology demonstrations to algorithm evaluation for follow-on efforts.
Title: Young Faculty Award (YFA)
Description: The goal of the Young Faculty Award (YFA) program is to encourage junior faculty at universities and their
equivalent at non-profit science and technology research institutions to participate in sponsored research programs that will
augment capabilities for future defense systems. This program focuses on cutting-edge technologies for greatly enhancing
microsystems technologies, biological technologies, and defense sciences. The long-term goal for this program is to develop the
next generation of scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in key disciplines who will focus a significant portion of their careers
on DoD and national security issues. The aim is for YFA recipients to receive deep interactions with DARPA program managers,
17.000 17.000 17.000
Volume 1 - 5
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PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
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Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 6 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
CCS-02 / MATH AND COMPUTER
SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
programs, performers, and the user community. Current activities include research in fifteen topic areas spanning from Machine
Learning and Many Body Physics, to Wideband Transmitter-Antenna Interfaces and Multi-Scale Models of Infectious Disease
Dynamics. A key aspect of the YFA program is DARPA-sponsored military visits; all YFA Principal Investigators are expected to
participate in one or more military site visits to help them better understand DoD needs.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Award new FY 2023 grants for new two-year research efforts across YFA topic areas, establishing a new set of appropriate
scientific approaches to solve current DoD challenges.
- Continue FY 2022 research on new concepts for microsystem, biological, strategic, and tactical technologies; information
innovation; and defense sciences by exercising second year funding and by providing continued mentorship by program
managers.
- Award Director's Fellowships for top FY 2021 participants to refine technology further and align to DoD needs.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Award FY 2024 grants for new two-year research efforts across YFA topic areas, establishing a new set of scientific approaches
to solve current DoD challenges.
- Continue FY 2023 research on new concepts for microsystem, biological, strategic, and tactical technologies; information
innovation; and defense sciences by exercising second year funding and by providing continued mentorship by program
managers.
- Award Director's Fellowships for top FY 2022 participants to refine technology further and align to DoD needs.
Title: Alternative Computing
Description: The Alternative Computing thrust is exploring and developing new computational primitives for modeling and
simulating complex systems. Despite decades of rapid advancement in electronic computing, there remain important national
security relevant challenge problems that do not lend themselves to achieving tractable solutions under size, weight, and
power (SWaP) constrained conditions. For example, simulation of complex nonlinear phenomena such as turbulence, fluid
flow, and plasma dynamics can be challenging even using currently available high-power computing resources. Building on
technologies developed under the Advanced Tools for Modeling and Simulation thrust, also in this PE/Project, the goal of the
Alternative Computing thrust is to develop novel architectural and algorithmic approaches to enable fast and accurate simulations
for problems that are practically intractable using electronic computers. Approaches considered under this thrust include the
following: (1) analog computing substrates for efficiently simulating systems governed by complex non-linear phenomena; (2)
multi-functional spin-based devices for scalable, efficient neuromorphic computing; (3) computing approaches that exploit the
capacity of nonlinear systems to simulate nonlinear dynamical systems; and (4) quantum enabled optimization of complex
systems.
28.000 28.000 20.000
Volume 1 - 6
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PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 7 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
CCS-02 / MATH AND COMPUTER
SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
FY 2023 Plans:
- Experimentally demonstrate quantum optimization algorithms for combinatorial optimization problems for larger problem sizes.
- Perform benchmarking of quantum optimization algorithms against the best classical method.
- Select specific problems to focus on when developing hardware agnostic benchmarks for quantum information processing
performance, prioritizing problems with the potential for transformational impact.
- Identify core enabling mathematical operations underlying each of the selected hardware agnostic quantum benchmarks.
- Establish initial hardware resource estimates for quantum computers that would be needed to solve specific problems with the
potential for transformational impact.
- Field and evaluate a closed-loop, verified, geographically dispersed network with operational nodes at multiple sites.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Create predictive and scalable benchmarks for quantifying the utility of quantum computers.
- Calculate the hardware resources necessary to achieve key utility thresholds using quantum computers to solve
transformational problems.
- Perform benchmarking of quantum optimization algorithms against the best classical method to demonstrate and quantify
quantum advantage.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects a shift in focus from design and fabrication to validation and verification.
Title: Perceptually-Enabled Task Guidance (PTG)
Description: The Perceptually-Enabled Task Guidance (PTG) program is developing artificial intelligence (AI) technology that
guides users in the performance of a wide range of cognitively challenging physical tasks. PTG leverages recent advances in
machine perception, automated reasoning, and augmented reality. The program connects perception to reasoning and reasoning
to augmented reality (AR) so as to create personalized, real-time feedback and contextualized assistance. To connect perception
and reasoning, PTG develops AI technologies for (1) perceptual grounding, to create a shared vocabulary for perception and
reasoning, and (2) perceptual attention, to select important information from large volumes of perceptual data. To connect
reasoning with AR, PTG develops AI technologies for (3) knowledge transfer, to derive task models from instructions intended
for humans, and (4) user modeling, to determine if, when, and how to best convey task information to the user. Together, PTG
technologies will lay the foundation for perceptually-enabled guidance and a qualitatively new type of AI device that enables
mechanics, medics, and other military specialists to perform physical tasks within and beyond their skillsets with greater accuracy
and efficiency.
FY 2023 Plans:
12.234 20.300 17.500
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Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 8 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
CCS-02 / MATH AND COMPUTER
SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Develop approaches for perceptual grounding as required for perceptually-enabled intelligent agents capable of learning how to
recognize task-related terms for objects, actions, and settings.
- Devise new techniques for combining visual and audio examples scraped from multimedia knowledge sources and transferring
them into task models, and for inferring model visual and audio properties from the properties of related model classes.
- Develop knowledge transfer approaches for taking the knowledge in human-oriented task instructions such as checklists,
procedure manuals, and training materials and representing that knowledge in machine-processable form.
- Initiate integration of perceptual grounding, perceptual attention, knowledge transfer, and user modeling technologies and
demonstrate and evaluate prototypes on a surrogate task use case and on a military task defined in collaboration with military
stakeholders.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Integrate perceptual, reasoning, and augmented reality technology with technologies for knowledge transfer, perceptual
grounding, and perceptual attention.
- Develop demonstration scenarios for interactive technology and military user communication in the context of answering
questions while the technology monitors users performing tasks.
- Develop technologies to address user modeling of individuals performing tasks in multiple military use cases.
- Perform assessments of task completion and user acceptance of the integrated technologies in the completion of tasks from
application domains defined in collaboration with military stakeholders.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects ramping down of development and integration of perceptually-enabled intelligent agents, and
emphasis shifting to demonstration and assessment of the technology on military task use cases.
Title: Knowledge Management at Scale
Description: The Knowledge Management at Scale thrust is focused on the development of knowledge management tools that
can efficiently capture, analyze and reason with expertise, experience and data. The technology development under this thrust
will help address a critical need for assimilating and preserving critical national security knowledge and expertise that is currently
being lost due to attrition and other factors. Specific objectives include the following: 1) effective, trustworthy, and easily accepted
approaches for domain agnostic knowledge acquisition at scale; 2) capabilities to identify correlations or hidden factors relating
to knowledge acquired from different sources; and 3) techniques for incorporating domain models and other data sources for
more extensive reasoning-based applications. Example approaches towards achieving these objectives include identifying and
demonstrating robust knowledge acquisition tools, exploiting Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to establish a framework for
knowledge analysis and causal reasoning, and developing automation tools that effectively elicit and impart acquired knowledge
via user friendly interfaces.
12.061 17.300 16.000
Volume 1 - 8
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 9 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
CCS-02 / MATH AND COMPUTER
SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
FY 2023 Plans:
- Extend novel AI tools capable of recognizing and representing implicit and explicit context of human tasks to scale to large
organizations and diverse tasks.
- Incorporate audio/video as input modalities into novel AI-based knowledge management tools.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Evaluate novel AI knowledge management tools in common domain of potential military interest.
- Incorporate personal sensor input modality into novel AI tools.
- Extend novel AI knowledge management tools to scale to individuals in organizations.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects a shift from technology development to explorations of application spaces and evaluation.
Title: Advanced Tools for Modeling and Simulation
Description: The Advanced Tools for Modeling and Simulation thrust is developing foundational mathematical, computational,
and multi-physics theories, approaches, and tools to better represent, quantify, and model complex DoD systems from multimodal
data analysis through part/system design and fabrication. One focus area of this thrust is developing a unified mathematical
framework to enable better visualization and analysis of massive, complex data sets. Rigorous mathematical theories are also
being developed to address uncertainty in the modeling and design of complex multi-scale physical and engineering systems,
incorporating capabilities to handle noisy data and model uncertainty that are well beyond the scope of current capabilities. Other
work in this thrust focuses on developing the mathematical and computational tools required to generate and better manage the
enormous complexity of design, ultimately allowing designers to more easily discover non-intuitive (yet realizable) designs that
fully leverage new materials and advanced manufacturing approaches now available. Outcomes from this thrust will improve the
speed and accuracy of modeling and simulation, as well as enable management of complexity across DoD devices, parts, and
systems. Another focus area of this thrust is multi-physics models for predicting behavior and non-intuitive failure pathways for
complex, dynamic physical systems.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Investigate new mathematics and computation tools to enable the discovery of transformations that make complex physical/
engineering problems more tractable.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Investigate the development of machine learning to generate transformations from large data sets and determine the limits of
such transformations.
3.000 3.000 5.000
Volume 1 - 9
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 10 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
CCS-02 / MATH AND COMPUTER
SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Explore combining machine learning with existing symbol manipulation approaches to develop digital engineering and scientific
computing tools for complex designs.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects a shift from initial technology investigations to new tool exploration and development.
Title: Artificial Social Intelligence for Successful Teams (ASIST)
Description: The Artificial Social Intelligence for Successful Teams (ASIST) program is developing intelligent software agents that
can create shared mental models to enable effective teaming with humans. Theory of mind and the ability to create shared mental
models are key elements of human social intelligence. Together these capabilities enable human collaboration and teamwork at
all scales, whether the setting is a playing field or a military mission. The ASIST program aims to develop technologies to enable
machines to exhibit similar capabilities for collaboration and teamwork with humans, capabilities which can be termed artificial
social intelligence. These include the capability to infer the goals and situational knowledge of human partners, to predict what
human partners will need, and to formulate context-aware actions having high value to team outcomes. The ASIST program is
developing proof-of-concept software agents that demonstrate a machine theory of mind and the capability to participate with
humans in an effective team by representing and helping to maintain shared mental models. ASIST aims to provide the basis for
machines that can participate effectively with humans on tasks where teamwork is required.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Develop and demonstrate computational agents that understand human social intelligence in a team context, can predict what is
needed by partners, and intervene as an effective coach.
- Develop agents able to handle perturbations in task, team, mission, and environment as needed for fast adaptation and team
resilience.
- Conduct experiments in multiple virtual testbed environments to demonstrate generalization across domains and relevance to
DoD missions.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Demonstrate socially intelligent agents capable of partnering with complex teams comprising individuals with specialized skills in
support of a selected use case.
- Provide open access to datasets, testbed, and agent prototypes for continued development by human-machine teaming
researchers and transition technology to military labs for experimentation on additional use cases.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
15.000 12.800 11.000
Volume 1 - 10
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 11 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
CCS-02 / MATH AND COMPUTER
SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
The FY 2024 decrease reflects ramping down of work to develop agents with artificial social intelligence and focus shifting to
technology demonstration and transition.
Title: Guaranteeing AI Robustness against Deception (GARD)
Description: The Guaranteeing AI Robustness against Deception (GARD) program is developing techniques to defend against
deception and other adversarial attacks on machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) systems. GARD addresses the
need to defend against deception attacks, whereby an adversary inputs engineered data into an ML system intending to cause
the system to produce erroneous results. Deception attacks can enable adversaries to take control of autonomous systems, alter
conclusions of ML-based decision support applications, and compromise tools and systems that rely on ML and AI technologies.
Current techniques for defending ML and AI have proven brittle due to a focus on individual attack methods and weak methods for
testing and evaluation. The GARD program is developing techniques that address the current limitations of defenses and produce
ML and AI systems suitable for use in adversarial environments. The GARD program is also developing theory regarding potential
fundamental limits on achievable ML robustness.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Develop and validate measures of adversary costs and enhance AI/ML defense methods to impose asymmetric costs on the
adversary.
- Develop human-on-the-loop defense techniques that enable the early identification of digital evasion attacks on AI-enabled
systems.
- Demonstrate model training methods that reduce AI/ML vulnerability to data poisoning.
- Extend evaluation framework to support simulation environments and test physically plausible threat models of interest to
potential DoD and U.S. Government transition partners.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Extend adversarial AI techniques to federated learning systems.
- Extend evaluation framework to support assessment of AI/ML defenses against multi-modal imaging attacks, audio speech
recognition poisoning attacks, and federated learning poisoning attacks.
- Demonstrate and transition AI/ML defense technology to DoD and U.S. Government transition partners.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects ramping down of work to develop techniques to defend against attacks on AI/ML systems and
focus shifting to demonstration and transition of technology.
17.500 21.500 12.000
Title: Human Social Systems 15.000 14.000 7.000
Volume 1 - 11
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 12 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
CCS-02 / MATH AND COMPUTER
SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Description: The social and behavioral sciences provide essential theories and models that can enable deeper understanding
of human social/behavioral systems relevant to national security such as mental health, humanitarian aid, disaster relief, and
stability support missions, as well as tactical, operational, strategic, and policy-level decision-making across the DoD. However,
current limitations to the speed, scalability, and reproducibility of empirical social science research continue to hamper its practical
use by the DoD. Additionally, current social behavioral models often fail to accurately interpret social behaviors because they do
not sufficiently capture diversity of context. The Human Social Systems thrust will address these limitations by focusing on the
following technical challenges: (1) developing and validating new methods, models and tools to perform rigorous, reproducible
experimental research at scales necessary to understand emergent properties of human social/behavioral systems; (2) identifying
methods to better characterize and quantify properties, dynamics, and behaviors of different social/behavioral systems to
enable better and more confident forecasting of changes in such systems, particularly when under stress; (3) developing
an understanding of the complex effect of context and incorporating these effects into models; and (4) developing strategic
forecasting and operational decision aiding capabilities that account for local contextual and cultural factors to assess the likely
effectiveness of and/or responses to actions within an Area of Operations. This research thrust will provide DoD with new, reliable
strategies to better understand and respond to social/behavioral system issues at multiple scales (from small group to cities and/or
regions) and will significantly improve DoD stabilization, deterrence, and/or gray zone mission outcomes.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Test the accuracy of causal models of regional socioeconomic systems derived from collective local understandings for
predicting event outcomes compared to the current state of practice.
- Evaluate the efficiency of methodologies for developing causal models of regional socioeconomic systems derived from
collective local understanding compared to the current state of practice.
- Continue to demonstrate that mechanisms developed for engaging local populations are compatible with local infrastructure and
generate sufficient quality data to generate predictive causal models.
- Explore development of a new mechanistic understanding of mental health for transdiagnostic treatment.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Test the accuracy of causal models of regional socioeconomic systems derived from collective local understandings for
predicting event outcomes compared to the current state of practice in new locations to test generalizability of methods.
- Evaluate the efficiency of methodologies for developing causal models of regional socioeconomic systems derived from
collective local understanding compared to the current state of practice in new locations to test generalizability of methods.
- Continue to demonstrate that mechanisms developed for engaging local populations are compatible with local infrastructure and
generate sufficient quality data to generate predictive causal models in new locations to test generalizability of methods.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
Volume 1 - 12
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 13 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
CCS-02 / MATH AND COMPUTER
SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
The FY 2024 decrease reflects a shift from development to demonstration.
Title: Machine Common Sense (MCS)
Description: The Machine Common Sense (MCS) program is exploring approaches to enable common-sense reasoning by
machines. Recent advances in machine learning have resulted in new artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in areas such as
image recognition, task-focused natural language processing, and strategy games such as Chess, Go, and Poker. In all of these
application domains, the machine reasoning is narrow and highly specialized, and the machine must be carefully trained or
programmed for every situation. This program addresses the challenge of general machine reasoning on par with common sense
human cognition. MCS is developing computational models that mimic core systems of human cognitive development that are
grounded in perceptual, motor, and memory modalities; a simulated interaction and learning environment to support machine
manipulation of grounded concept models; and common-sense knowledge repositories to support AI system development. AI
systems that are capable of human-like reasoning will be able to behave more appropriately in unforeseen situations and to learn
with reduced requirements for training data.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Develop agent models focused on understanding other agent intentions and demonstrate intentional agent reasoning.
- Augment cognitive models with expanded experience learning capabilities and enable self-evaluation modes for scenarios that
require agent sensemaking, human-machine collaboration, and knowledge transfer.
- Create evaluation techniques for generative question-answering for common-sense reasoning tasks and extend commonsense
reasoning capabilities to utilize cross-modal (text, image, video) data to improve performance.
- Extend the simulation environment to support modeling and performance assessment for environments with complexity, noise,
and novelty.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Use the simulation environment to assess capability on benchmark common sense challenge problem suites in environments
exhibiting high complexity, noise, and novelty.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects ramping down of efforts to develop machine common sense technologies and the simulation
environment, and focus shifting to evaluation on benchmark common sense challenge problem suites.
18.000 19.000 6.962
Title: Pipelined Reasoning of Verifiers Enabling Robust Systems (PROVERS)
Description: The Pipelined Reasoning of Verifiers Enabling Robust Systems (PROVERS) program is creating scalable
mathematically based technologies, tools, and practices to achieve continuous reasoning about complex systems that can
support software development pipelines. These mathematically based techniques, or formal methods, enable rigorous modeling,
- 8.000 17.200
Volume 1 - 13
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 14 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
CCS-02 / MATH AND COMPUTER
SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
reasoning, and proving diverse properties of software code or design models, for example, the absence of a specific type of defect
or security vulnerability. PROVERS integrates formal methods into a modern incremental and iterative development process by
running tools at each code commit and delivering results to developers when they can most effectively remediate discovered
issues. To achieve this, PROVERS is focusing on creating and sustaining a body of evidence that can co-evolve with the system
under change to support continuous assessment and ensure that the system remains free of identified categories of defects and
security vulnerabilities through its lifetime. Key PROVERS objectives include enabling proof maintenance and repair capabilities
at a cost that is proportionate to code change; integration of formal methods with code, properties, and proofs in a single workflow
that reduces human involvement; providing improved explanations to facilitate proof repair; and automating formal methods-
based software analysis to support software developers that are not formal methods experts. PROVERS technologies will facilitate
the agile development and continuous improvement of mission-critical software systems that meet the high security and quality
standards required by the DoD.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Develop tools and data management techniques appropriate for pipelined software development processes that support
incremental proof maintenance and repair.
- Identify candidate mission-critical software applications and systems for controlled formal-methods-based experiments to
quantify the improvements in development productivity and system security.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Develop and demonstrate formal methods approaches, tools, and data management techniques integrated in pipelined software
development processes and quantify the costs related to adding formal methods-based assurances in development workflows.
- Implement mathematical approaches for proof engineering at scale and demonstrate efficiency and quality of outputs within
existing and modified workflows.
- Collaborate with DoD stakeholders on controlled formal-methods-based experiments on selected mission-critical software
systems to quantify the improvements in development productivity and system security.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects scaling up efforts to develop mathematical approaches for proof engineering at scale and
techniques and tools for continuous reasoning about complex systems that can support software development pipelines.
Title: Environment-driven Conceptual Learning (ECOLE)
Description: The Environment-driven Conceptual Learning (ECOLE) program, addressing basic research challenges identified
in the Accelerating AI thrust (PE 0602303E, Project IT-04), will create AI agents capable of continually learning from linguistic
and visual input to enable human-machine collaborative analysis of image, video, and multimedia documents during time-
sensitive, mission-critical DoD analytic tasks, where reliability and robustness are essential. ECOLE will transform current machine
- 6.000 14.000
Volume 1 - 14
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 15 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
CCS-02 / MATH AND COMPUTER
SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
learning approaches by developing algorithms that can identify, represent, and ground the attributes that form the symbolic and
contextual model for a particular object or activity through interactive learning with a human analyst. Knowledge of attributes and
affordances, learned dynamically from data encountered within an analytic workflow, will enable joint reasoning with a human
partner. This acquired knowledge will also enable the machine to recognize when an observed object or activity is novel, rather
than misclassifying the newly observed object or action as a member of a previously-learned class, and readily learn a new
symbolic representation through interaction with its human partner.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Explore alternative means for automated discovery of distinguishing features among objects and activities.
- Devise approaches for utilizing interactions among objects and actions to understand affordances.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Formulate initial AI agents capable of continually learning from language and vision to enable human-machine collaborative
analysis of image, video, and multimedia documents.
- Develop initial algorithms that identify, represent, and ground novel attributes that form the symbolic and contextual model for a
particular object or activity through interactive learning with a human analyst.
- Initiate development of a suite of collaborative human-machine image analysis challenge problems based on inputs from
potential transition partners in the defense and intelligence communities.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects scaling up of efforts to create techniques to identify, represent, and ground novel attributes through
human-machine collaborative analysis and to develop a suite of analytic challenge problems of interest to the DoD and IC.
Title: Modular Meta-cognition (ModMetaCog)
Description: The Modular Meta-cognition (ModMetaCog) program aims to develop machine introspection technologies that
enable AI systems to analyze and explain their behavior and improve their performance. Current AI systems sometimes work well
in the lab but then perform poorly in the field where they operate as part of larger systems that behave unpredictably and/or when
they encounter situations not anticipated during training. ModMetaCog will develop and apply recent results in AI/ML saliency
and explainability to create introspection capabilities for AI systems, in effect wrapping a second AI system around the original
system. The second AI system acts to analyze and explain the behavior of the first, identify anomalies and potential problems,
and either acts to make changes to the first system to fix the problem or to communicate its findings to a human operator for
action. ModMetaCog will develop both basic theory of meta-cognition and prototype introspection modules for specific types of AI
problems, such as classification, detection, control, and others. ModMetaCog will create machine introspection technologies that
enable AI/ML systems to identify when they are performing poorly and to improve their performance when required.
- - 7.000
Volume 1 - 15
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 16 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
CCS-02 / MATH AND COMPUTER
SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
FY 2024 Plans:
- Formulate flexible modular meta-cognition architectures applicable to broad classes of AI and machine learning systems.
- Initiate development of meta-cognition modules for diverse problem types such as classification, detection, control, and others.
- Initiate development of a simulation test-bed to generate data for meta-cognition experimentation and evaluation on multiple AI
problem types.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects program initiation.
Title: Safe Documents (SafeDocs)
Description: The Safe Documents (SafeDocs) program is developing software technologies that constrain syntactic complexity
in data exchange formats and improve the capability to reject invalid and maliciously crafted data in electronic documents and
streaming data. The high complexity and unmanaged evolution of electronic document formats and streaming data protocols
greatly increase the computational attack surface. The SafeDocs program is rationalizing existing data exchange formats
significant to the defense mission with attention to compatibility, and advancing the state of the art in the security of document and
data format parsers. SafeDocs advances will enable automated code verification, assure that the conditions of data validity are
enforced, and secure documents and streaming data.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Refine, improve, and validate the software parser prototypes for enterprise features relevant to both commercial and military
systems.
- Scale the test corpus to the size representative of a large enterprise and test the parsers for usability, predictability, and stability.
- Refine and harden the technology to meet transition partner requirements and coordinate with industry and other stakeholders
to standardize the simplified safe formats.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
12.500 8.000 -
Title: Learning with Less Labeling (LwLL)
Description: The Learning with Less Labeling (LwLL) program is developing technology to greatly reduce the amount of labeled
data required to train machine learning (ML) systems. In supervised ML, a system learns through the use of labeled training
examples to recognize and categorize attributes of images, text, or speech. Humans provide these training-data examples to
ML systems and, with enough labeled data, it is generally possible to build useful models. Obtaining large amounts of labeled
data can be costly, particularly for national security applications. LwLL is addressing this problem by creating ML algorithms that
learn and adapt more efficiently than current ML approaches, formally deriving the limits of machine learning and adaptation,
12.500 6.324 -
Volume 1 - 16
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 17 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
CCS-02 / MATH AND COMPUTER
SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
and training with a combination of labeled and unlabeled data. LwLL aims to create ML systems that are easier to train for use in
variable, unpredictable, real-world environments where training data is costly or sparse.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Demonstrate capabilities of the LwLL tools in specific DoD relevant applications such as object identification, activity recognition,
and target recognition, as well as adapting a trained model to a new set of conditions.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
Title: Agile Artificial Intelligence (AgAI)
Description: The Agile Artificial Intelligence (AgAI) program sought to create the capability to rapidly stand-up AI in domains
important to national security. In many significant domains with potentially urgent mission needs, labeled data may be sparse and
costly to acquire, sensors and other data sources may be rapidly evolving in their capabilities, and requirements for reliability and
traceability may be significant. Building on emerging technical opportunities in machine learning and symbolic reasoning, AgAI
developed scientific and technological foundations for the agile creation and evolution of AI-based capabilities. Emerging technical
areas that are critical to AgAI include explicit domain models, harmonization of statistical and symbolic approaches, hybridization
of multiple AI methods with techniques including game theory and optimization, and meta-cognition to support rapid improvement
of the AI capabilities themselves.
5.000 - -
Title: World Modelers
Description: The World Modelers program created explanatory models for complex natural and human-mediated systems
at regional and global scales. Because of macro-economic interdependence, widespread consequences can result from the
disruption of natural resources, supply chains, and production systems. World Modelers capabilities focused on regional and
global systems with the goal of generating timely indications and warnings. Water and food security application domains were of
particular interest, as persistent drought may cause crops to fail, leading to migration and regional conflicts. The World Modelers
program developed techniques for automating the creation, maintenance, and validation of large-scale integrated models using
publicly available news and analyst reports as a structuring mechanism, and government and commercial data as quantitative
inputs.
6.000 - -
Accomplishments/Planned Programs Subtotals
243.345 218.916 179.433
FY 2022 FY 2023
Congressional Add: AI Cyber Data Analytics (AI) - Congressional Add 10.000 -
Volume 1 - 17
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 18 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
CCS-02 / MATH AND COMPUTER
SCIENCES
FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2022 Accomplishments: - Explored approaches for supplementing AI systems with introspective meta-
cognition capabilities that analyze, explain, and improve their learning behavior.
- Developed improved algorithms and training strategies for machine learning systems and human-machine
teaming.
- Devised sim-to-real robotics training schemes to expand beyond machine proprioception to enable vision,
grasping, and life-long adaptation capabilities.
- Explored approaches for automated testing and identification of vulnerabilities with explainable breakdown for
decision makers.
- Extended user models for the mechanics use case to include what the user knows in context, what the user is
doing, and the user's attentional state.
Congressional Add: AI Cyber Data Analytics (Cyber) - Congressional Add
FY 2022 Accomplishments: - Extended techniques to provide verifiable, machine-readable linkages to
descriptive text and a prototype framework for compiling dual machine and human-accessible hypertext content.
- Formulated approaches for enhanced situational awareness of compromise for multi-component computing
systems.
- Developed capabilities to detect anomalous software engineering practices and development activities as a
means for open-source software assurance.
10.000 -
Congressional Add: AI Cyber Data Analytics (Data) - Congressional Add
FY 2022 Accomplishments: - Explored architectural modeling approaches for trusted information flows and
integrity assurance of augmented reality systems in data-intensive and mission-critical environments.
- Extended data description language techniques to enable the automated generation of arbitrary documents in
specified formats and of polyglot files.
- Formulated approaches to train negotiation agents on large, diverse datasets to reveal how data availability
and accuracy can impact the agent's performance.
- Enhanced the user interface to provide expanded access to a diverse array of data, models, and tools that
facilitate understanding of risks and opportunities.
10.000 -
Congressional Add: University Partnerships for AI Development - Congressional Add
FY 2023 Plans: - Initiate University Partnerships for AI Development.
- 9.000
Congressional Add: Advanced Predictive Analytics for Supply Chain Risk Management - Congressional Add - 4.000
Volume 1 - 18
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 19 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
CCS-02 / MATH AND COMPUTER
SCIENCES
FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2023 Plans: - Initiate advanced predictive analytics for supply chain risk management.
Congressional Adds Subtotals
30.000 13.000
C. Other Program Funding Summary ($ in Millions)
N/A
Remarks
D. Acquisition Strategy
N/A
Volume 1 - 19
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 20 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
ES-01 / ELECTRONIC SCIENCES
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
ES-01: ELECTRONIC
SCIENCES
- 12.926 17.645 12.854 - 12.854 22.678 30.682 32.410 37.410 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The Electronic Sciences project is for basic exploration of electronic and optoelectronic devices, circuits, and processing concepts to meet the military's need for near
real-time information gathering, transmission, and processing. In seeking to continue the phenomenal advancement in microelectronics innovation that has characterized
the last few decades, the project will provide DoD with new, improved, or potentially revolutionary device options for accomplishing these critical functions. The resulting
technologies will help maintain knowledge of the enemy, communicate decisions based on that knowledge, and substantially improve the cost and performance of
military systems. Research areas include analog, mixed signal, and photonic circuitry for communications and other applications; alternative computer architectures;
and magnetic components to reduce the size of Electromagnetic (EM) and sensing systems. Other research could support field-portable electronics with reduced power
requirements, and new approaches to nanometer-scale structures, molecules, and devices.
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Title: Atomic-Photonic Integration (A-PhI)
Description: The Atomic-Photonic Integration (A-PhI) program is reducing the size, weight, and power of atomic clocks
and gyroscopes for position, navigation, and timing (PNT) applications through the development of integrated photonics.
Specifically, A-PhI will demonstrate that a compact photonic integrated chip can replace the optical assembly for trapped atomic
gyroscopes and clocks without degrading the performance of the device. PNT is a critical resource for all DoD missions such
as communications, navigation, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare. While PNT needs usually are met by using the global
positioning system (GPS), GPS signals are vulnerable to disruption and a fallback from GPS is essential. In the absence of GPS,
tactical-grade clocks and tactical/navigation grade inertial measurement units (IMUs) currently can provide GPS-like accuracy
only for the short term, and longer-term GPS independent strategies are highly desirable. A-PhI will enable long-term GPS
independence and enable better-than-GPS PNT accuracy for short durations.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Further improve atom trap gyroscope sensitivity.
- Demonstrate an atomic clock physics package meeting size, frequency stability, and phase noise metrics.
- Initiate research into other reference frequency sources, such as sub-millimeter wave oscillators, with the potential to achieve
atomic clock-level accuracy, precision, and stability.
- Perform trade study on fundamental performance of quantum cascade lasers.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Test integrated photonics-based atomic clock by referencing to civilian and military time standards.
8.000 9.000 8.854
Volume 1 - 20
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 21 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
ES-01 / ELECTRONIC SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Demonstrate a trapped atom gyroscope with single measurement angle rate resolution and scale factor exceeding commercial
gyroscopes.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects minor program repricing.
Title: Robust Protection for Electronic Systems (ROPES)
Description: The Robust Protection for Electronic Systems (ROPES) program will develop and mature ultra-wide bandgap
(UWBG) materials and devices to achieve robust, high-power operation and fast switching speed required to protect sensitive RF
electronics in harsh environments. ROPES will address the key technical challenges that limit the performance of conventional
diodes and switches. These challenges include demonstrating materials and device architectures capable of simultaneous
high current operation and low leakage current under high electric field, and simultaneously achieving low device resistance
and capacitance resulting in fast switching speed. To be successful, ROPES will leverage advances in UWBG materials and
innovative device architectures to enable high power, high speed, and low loss switches. ROPES will support multiple DoD
platforms and arrays by enabling high-power (kilowatt class), low-loss front end receiver protect circuitry, as well as high voltage
(10 kilovolt class), low-loss switches required for future electric ship power systems. This program has applied research efforts
funded in PE 0602716E, Project ELT-01.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Develop growth techniques for UWBG materials such as aluminum nitride, diamond, cubic boron nitride or gallium oxide,
demonstrating device-grade material quality with low defectivity and control of dopants.
- Fabricate UWBG test structures to characterize and optimize material properties and quantify dopant concentration and material
defectivity.
- Develop approaches to create low resistance ohmic contacts required to minimize device resistance and loss.
- Develop atomistic models that incorporate electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties of UWBG materials and device
structures enabling accurate, multi-physics co-design.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects program initiation.
- - 4.000
Title: Ultra-Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (UWBG)
Description: The Ultra-Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (UWBG) program seeks to develop an entirely new class of
semiconductor materials that will offer performance breakthroughs for a range of applications when compared to existing
compound semiconductors. The electrical bandgap of a material determines breakdown voltage, intrinsic charge carrier density,
and color (wavelength) of light emission, and also impacts the maximum output power and operating frequency of a transistor
4.926 8.645 -
Volume 1 - 21
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 22 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
ES-01 / ELECTRONIC SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
made from the material. Consequently, ultra-wide bandgap materials have considerable interest for the DoD due to the high
operating temperatures, currents, voltages, and frequencies often required by emerging high power, agile Radio Frequency
(RF) sources for radar, communications, directed energy, and electronic warfare. This program will overcome the fundamental
materials and device challenges, such as low-defect substrates, heteroepitaxial material growth, and high-concentration p-type
and n-type doping, that currently prevent implementation of UWBG materials into power, RF, and optoelectronic devices and
systems.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Characterize low-energy heterogeneous epitaxially-grown UWBG devices.
- Experimentally verify theoretical models of high-energy performance and avalanche breakdown in UWBG materials.
- Analyze expected benefits of UWBG-enabled RF systems for radar, communications, directed energy, and electronic warfare
applications.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
Accomplishments/Planned Programs Subtotals
12.926 17.645 12.854
C. Other Program Funding Summary ($ in Millions)
N/A
Remarks
D. Acquisition Strategy
N/A
Volume 1 - 22
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 23 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
ES-02 / BEYOND SCALING SCIENCES
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
ES-02: BEYOND SCALING
SCIENCES
- 64.607 70.188 52.004 - 52.004 57.212 44.370 53.540 53.540 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The Beyond Scaling Sciences project supports investigations into materials, devices, and architectures to provide continued improvements in electronics performance
with or without the benefit of Moore's Law (silicon transistor scaling). Within the next ten years, traditional scaling will start to encounter the fundamental physical limits
of silicon, requiring fresh approaches to new electronic systems. Over the short term, DoD will therefore need to unleash circuit specialization in order to maximize
the benefit of traditional silicon. Over the longer term, DoD and the nation will need to engage the computer, material, and mechanical sciences to explore electronics
improvements through new non-volatile memory devices that combine computation and memory, and new automated design tools using machine learning. Other
memory devices could also leverage an emerging understanding of the physics of magnetic states, electron spin properties, topological insulators, or phase-changing
materials. Additionally, new design and manufacturing advances for three-dimensional microelectronics integration will underpin continued performance improvements
as silicon transistor scaling plateaus. Beyond Scaling programs addressed fundamental exploration in each of these areas.
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Title: Low Temperature Logic Technology (LTLT)
Description: The Low Temperature Logic Technology (LTLT) program will exploit the unique device and material performance
characteristics of state-of-the-art silicon transistors at cryogenic temperatures. Current silicon transistors are performance and
power limited when operating at room temperature or higher. This program removes these limitations through modifying the
design of existing silicon transistors to optimize their performance at cryogenic temperatures. These devices will be compatible
with current complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication process flows and will offer significant increases
in performance and power efficiency over room temperature devices. This program has applied research efforts funded in PE
0602716E, Project ELT-02.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Perform initial design of low temperature transistors, memory, and interconnects for low temperature circuits.
- Refine simulations of transistor, memory, and interconnect performance at low temperature.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Fabricate optimized transistors and generate compact device models.
- Demonstrate compact, low power memory cells and experimentally show their performance at low temperature.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects a shift from initial design to demonstration of low power memory cells.
4.000 13.188 4.004
Title: Next Generation Microelectronics - Advanced Manufacturing Science - 20.000 16.000
Volume 1 - 23
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 24 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
ES-02 / BEYOND SCALING SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Description: Next Generation Microelectronics - Advanced Manufacturing Science addresses the fundamental science of
advanced design, fabrication, packaging, assembly, and testing for complex microsystems. This area also addresses leveraging
the underlying device physics of novel material systems to enable electronics that operate in extreme environments, such as
environments with high voltage, high current, high temperature, low temperature, and radiation exposure. This effort will build
upon a fundamental understanding of the materials, interconnects, and device technologies to enable the design, assembly,
testing, and digital emulation of three-dimensional heterogeneous integration (3DHI) in microsystems, and their use in both
standard and extreme environments. The physics of interfaces between similar and dissimilar materials and the ability to
characterize and reduce defect densities will be critical to the future of 3DHI approaches. In addition, the physics of electron
transport, photon transport, and heat dissipation are key areas of study. Materials advances and metrology that improve the
reliability of heterogeneously integrated microsystems will be addressed, including those that enable high current density for
power delivery. Applied research related to this effort is funded within PE 0602716E, Project ELT-02.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Investigate electrical characterization techniques and metrology for three-dimensionally interconnected microsystems and
thermally hardened microsystems.
- Identify the surface and interface physics to allow precisely aligned, high-density interconnects for digital components.
- Explore novel materials and material systems to extend temperature operation range and to improved management of thermal
interfaces, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and additive manufacturing.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Evaluate candidate electrical characterization techniques and metrology for representative three-dimensionally interconnected
microsystems and thermally hardened microsystems.
- Perform initial experiments to create precisely aligned, high-density interconnects for digital components.
- Characterize candidate novel materials and material systems to extend temperature operation range and to improved
management of thermal interfaces, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and additive manufacturing.
- Evaluate advanced additive manufacturing techniques including aerosol ink jet printing, nano-composite materials, and selective
etching for use in 3DHI electronics.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The decrease in FY 2024 reflects shifting from a large set of candidate materials and techniques to the evaluation and
characterization of a narrower set of materials and techniques.
Title: Compartmentalization and Privilege Management (CPM)
Description: The Compartmentalization and Privilege Management (CPM) program will develop new system frameworks,
architectures, and tooling to provide fine grained, least privileged, compartmentalization that enables prevention and containment
- - 6.000
Volume 1 - 24
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 25 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
ES-02 / BEYOND SCALING SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
of cyber attacks. Today's information systems are structured around a monolithic core (the kernel) that operates within a single
protection domain at a single high privilege level. This monolithic kernel contains many separate components, but because
there are no protection boundaries between these components, a single compromise anywhere in the system allows attackers
effectively unlimited access through an extended sequence of exploits and steps of privilege escalation and lateral motion. CPM
will develop technologies and tools to automatically compartmentalize large legacy software systems, and processor architectures
and system software that enforce a compartment and privilege level regime. CPM tools and architectures will prevent initial
penetrations from propagating into successful cyber attacks.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Formulate approaches and initiate development of a suite of tools to automatically compartmentalize legacy code and manage
privilege levels.
- Initiate development of processor architectures and system software that enforce a compartment and privilege level regime with
low overhead.
- Initiate development of a library of attack campaign test cases for quantifying compartmentalization effectiveness and overhead,
and select DoD systems on which to demonstrate attack containment.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects program initiation.
Title: Joint University Microelectronics Program (JUMP)
Description: The Joint University Microelectronics Program (JUMP) was a government-industry joint research program to
explore computing, sensing, communication, and data storage innovations for applications beyond the 2030 horizon. The
program recognized that the densely interconnected microsystems of the future would be built through the use of groundbreaking
materials, revolutionary devices, advanced architectures, and unconventional computing. Therefore, JUMP sponsored academic
research teams focused on related key technology areas that would impact future DoD capabilities and national security. The
JUMP program not only pushed fundamental technology research but also established long-range microelectronic research
themes with greater emphasis on end-application and systems-level computation. By discovering the science underlying new
technologies and overcoming engineering challenges, JUMP enabled DoD applications to exploit the entire electromagnetic
spectrum from radio frequency (RF) to terahertz (THz) and to employ both distributed and centralized computing with embedded
intelligence and memory.
18.000 - -
Title: Joint University Microelectronics Program 2.0 (JUMP 2.0)
Description: The Joint University Microelectronics Program 2.0 (JUMP 2.0) program will develop and demonstrate innovative
next-generation microelectronics technologies through public-private partnership with universities, the defense industrial base,
- 26.000 26.000
Volume 1 - 25
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 26 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
ES-02 / BEYOND SCALING SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
and the semiconductor industry. The JUMP 2.0 program addresses the grand technical challenges of our increasingly connected
world that must be overcome including: the need for innovation in analog hardware, increasing demand for more memory and
data storage, the imbalance between data generation and communication capacity, the emerging security vulnerabilities in highly-
interconnected Artificial Intelligence systems, and the unsustainable growth in energy demands for computing. Therefore, the
JUMP 2.0 program sponsors academic research teams focused on related key technology areas that will not only impact future
defense and national security capabilities but also strengthen U.S. leadership in information and communication technology. The
JUMP 2.0 program will push fundamental technology research themes in cognition, communications, sensing to action, computing
and processing, memory and storage, integration and packaging, and high-performance energy efficient devices to enable key
disruptive advances in microelectronic technology.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Launch university research teams to study technical areas with long-term impacts to government and industry.
- Explore high-performance energy-efficient materials, devices, and advanced monolithic and heterogeneous integration
technology.
- Investigate cognition, communications, sensing to action, intelligent memory, and distributed computing concepts.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Develop emerging materials, devices, and integration and packaging technologies for future microsystems.
- Establish concepts for next-generation artificial intelligence, efficient communication, intelligent storage, novel sensing-to-action,
and distributed computing architectures.
Title: Guaranteed Architectures for Physical Security (GAPS)
Description: The Guaranteed Architectures for Physical Security (GAPS) program is developing hardware security and software
architectures with provable security interfaces. These interfaces will physically isolate high-risk transactions during both system
design and system build, and will ensure that such protections are enforced at run-time. GAPS will reduce the inherent complexity
through the development of hardware and software that is open, extendible, and compatible with size, weight, and power-
constrained environments to enable security across DoD and commercial systems. The program will substantially lower the
barrier to safely enabling high-risk transactions, thus allowing for fast computer-to-computer transactions, physical spatial isolation
reducing the need for unreliable software partitioning solutions, and more complex missions without putting sensitive data at risk.
This program has applied research efforts funded in PE 0602716E, Project ELT-02.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Demonstrate integration of provably-secure hardware into multi-level security architecture.
6.000 11.000 -
Volume 1 - 26
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 27 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
ES-02 / BEYOND SCALING SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Perform initial testing of integrated provably-secure hardware.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
Title: Beyond Scaling - Materials
Description: The Beyond Scaling - Materials program investigated new materials to support next-generation logic and memory
components. The program pursued potential enhancements in electronics that do not rely on Moore's Law, i.e., silicon transistor
scaling, including research into new materials and into the implications of those materials at the device, algorithm, and packaging
levels. These basic explorations included novel mechanisms for computation based on inherent material properties and innovative
processes to vertically integrate these materials with others to realize superior computational mechanisms. Applied research for
this program was funded within PE 0602716E, Project ELT-02.
5.000 - -
Title: Beyond Scaling - Architectures and Designs
Description: The Beyond Scaling - Architectures and Designs program investigated circuit architectures and design tools at both
the integrated circuit and board level to provide enhanced performance and security with or without the benefit of continued silicon
transistors scaling (Moore's Law). This program investigated the potential for lowering the barriers to designing specialized circuits
and to incorporating privacy and security protections. Approaches included the use of machine learning and automated design
tools to program specialized hardware blocks, integrating them into existing designs, and deploying them in complex systems.
This program also supported a new DoD capability to create secure and specialized hardware that does not depend on continued
improvements in silicon transistors. Applied research for this program was funded within PE 0602716E, Project ELT-02.
6.645 - -
Title: Lifelong Learning Machines (L2M)
Description: The Lifelong Learning Machines (L2M) program researched and developed fundamentally new machine learning
mechanisms, enabling machines that learn continuously as they operate. L2M pursued learning approaches inspired by biological
systems, which continuously learn and improve their skills without losing previous knowledge. L2M explored network structures
that improved performance by processing new data seen in the field, learned new tasks without forgetting previous tasks,
and incorporated context into their understanding of the environment. These capabilities will impact a broad array of military
applications that require processing and understanding data in real-time, often have limited data sets for training, and must be
deployed in environments where unpredictable events may occur.
4.962 - -
Accomplishments/Planned Programs Subtotals
44.607 70.188 52.004
Volume 1 - 27
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 28 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
ES-02 / BEYOND SCALING SCIENCES
FY 2022 FY 2023
Congressional Add: ERI 2.0 Congressional Add
FY 2022 Accomplishments: - Initiated development of new material systems to extend temperature operation
range for thermally-hardened and high-reliability microsystems.
- Initiated development of new materials for three-dimensional heterogeneous integration (3DHI) photonics.
- Identified new materials and structures for passive components for 3DHI power modules.
- Developed novel materials for reducing losses in vertical high frequency interconnects for 3DHI microsystems.
20.000 -
Congressional Adds Subtotals
20.000 -
C. Other Program Funding Summary ($ in Millions)
N/A
Remarks
D. Acquisition Strategy
N/A
Volume 1 - 28
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 29 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
MS-01 / MATERIALS SCIENCES
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
MS-01: MATERIALS SCIENCES
- 41.860 53.356 62.934 - 62.934 69.018 69.200 69.782 69.582 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The Materials Sciences project provides the fundamental research that underpins the design, development, assembly, and optimization of advanced materials, devices,
and systems for DoD applications in areas such as robust diagnostics and therapeutics, novel energetic materials, and complex hybrid systems.
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Title: Fundamental Limits
Description: Understanding the Fundamental Limits (i.e., achievable boundaries) of scientific principles, processes and
technologies is critical to better anticipate technological surprise for our adversaries and ourselves. This thrust explores
boundaries across fields such as physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, and engineering to address critical questions for
national security, addressing foundational theory and approaches that include, for example, the fundamental limitations of optical
technologies, potential implications for basic biology on national security, and the ability for modeling and simulation to provide a
better understanding of complex systems.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Complete development of new multimodal whole-of-atmosphere sensors to identify atmospheric transient disturbances
produced by meteorological and geophysical sources.
- Demonstrate using the atmosphere as a sensor to discover sources of transient disturbances in real-world conditions relevant to
national security.
- Identify DoD relevant applications for room temperature, vapor cell-based electric and magnetic field sensors and quantum
atom-light interfaces.
- Continue to improve sensitivity of atomic vapor-based electric and magnetic field sensors.
- Continue to increase the atom-photon interaction strength and quantum coherence of vapor-based quantum devices.
- Commence modeling of high energy particle accelerator structures and particle source targets.
- Explore capabilities and applications of hybrid quantum/classical computational systems.
- Develop table-top Quantum Simulators to generate predictive governing models for complex systems.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Initial demonstration of compact, highly-sensitive atomic vapor-based electric and magnetic field sensor devices.
- Initial demonstration of compact vapor-based quantum device with high atom-photon interaction strength and quantum
coherence.
20.760 27.356 36.934
Volume 1 - 29
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 30 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
MS-01 / MATERIALS SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Perform an engineering analysis of atomic vapor benchtop devices to provide a blueprint for future fieldable systems tailored to
DoD applications.
- Complete initial modeling of high energy particle accelerator structures and particle source targets.
- Define system requirements for compact and directional particle sources.
- Analyze the needed fidelity in data and modeling and simulation to improve understanding of the behavior of the geosphere.
- Begin development of new modeling and simulation tools for determining the atmospheric changes that could perturb climate
and weather.
- Develop the theoretical framework for transport of spin polarized electrons.
- Initiate efforts to develop techniques to control chemical reaction pathways.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects a shift from component development and integration to system demonstration and refinement.
Title: Molecular Systems and Materials Assembly
Description: The Molecular Systems and Materials Assembly thrust is exploring new approaches for the synthesis, assembly,
characterization and application of molecules and materials for a variety of DoD applications from the atomic to the product scale.
Ultimately, materials and methods developed in this thrust will support a wide range of DoD applications that will leverage novel
materials to extend the range, duration, and capabilities of DoD systems and the warfighter. Through control of the arrangement,
interactions, and assembly of atoms and molecules, new materials and manufacturing processes are being developed to address
long-standing challenges in supply chains, logistics, and sustainment while simultaneously enhancing the warfighter's capabilities
on the battlefield. Efforts in this thrust range from fundamental science to better understand the chemistry and physics related to
each application, to developing means to utilize such capabilities in future test systems and prototype devices.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Discover or design novel materials and materials architectures that can self-regulate morphology in electrochemical interfaces.
- Assess system-level persistence improvements in solid-state batteries such as (number of charge/recharge cycles) due to
morphology regulation.
- Assess material systems improvements for corrosion resistant materials such as galvanic corrosion and corrosion fatigue due to
morphology regulation.
- Initiate efforts to achieve simultaneous production of four human macronutrients in microbial food.
- Initiate efforts to demonstrate integration of all component processes required to produce microbial food in the field.
- Initiate effort to demonstrate the ability to flavor microbial food.
- Develop techniques for the precision control of electron and proton flow to carbon and nitrogen for military provisioning at point
of need.
18.000 26.000 26.000
Volume 1 - 30
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 31 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
MS-01 / MATERIALS SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Provide initial proof-of-concept for rare earth element and strategic mineral production approaches that provide foundations
for economical, efficient, low-waste approaches that yield high purity single species from domestic sources and could easily be
scaled up beyond laboratory scale.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Predict evolution of morphology and local gradients in electrochemical interfaces.
- Demonstrate persistence improvements in solid-state laboratory scale battery test samples due to solid/solid morphogenic
interfaces.
- Demonstrate higher fatigue strength of test samples with morphogenic solid/liquid and solid/vapor interfaces in a corrosive
environment.
- Achieve simultaneous production of four human macronutrients in microbial food and initiate efforts to produce macro- and
micro- nutrients in desired ratios.
- Demonstrate, on a benchtop, each of the essential processes required to produce microbial food in the field and initiate efforts to
reduce system size, weight, and power.
- Demonstrate ability to flavor microbial food and initiate efforts to produce multiple flavors and formats.
Title: Basic Photon Science
Description: The Basic Photon Science thrust examined the fundamental science of photons and their interactions in integrated
devices for potential DoD-applications such as communications, signal processing, spectroscopic sensing and imaging. Research
efforts explored development of a complex theoretical framework for maximum information extraction from complex scenes to
guide development of new imaging technologies. Work in this thrust established the first-principles limits of photon detector
performance in a variety of detector technologies enabling better, more sensitive detectors.
3.100 - -
Accomplishments/Planned Programs Subtotals
41.860 53.356 62.934
C. Other Program Funding Summary ($ in Millions)
N/A
Remarks
D. Acquisition Strategy
N/A
Volume 1 - 31
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 32 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
TRS-01 / TRANSFORMATIVE SCIENCES
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
TRS-01: TRANSFORMATIVE
SCIENCES
- 31.594 31.265 4.306 - 4.306 7.373 7.623 7.623 7.623 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The Transformative Sciences project focuses on research and analysis that leverages converging technological forces and transformational trends in information-
intensive subareas of life sciences, data sciences, and manufacturing. Innovative technologies developed in this project will address multiple DoD challenges such
as identification of and adaptation to emerging threats, access to DoD relevant critical materials for manufacturing and warfighter readiness. Successful programs in
this project will integrate diverse disciplines and engineer complex biological systems to detect novel threat agents, accelerate warfighter injury recovery, and develop
new platform materials and manufacturing processes. This Project also supports innovation and robust transition planning in the technology cycle by working with
entrepreneurs to increase the likelihood that DARPA-funded technologies take root in the U.S. and provide new capabilities for national defense.
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Title: Rapid Healing for Warfighter Injuries
Description: The Rapid Healing for Warfighter Injuries effort is addressing the DoD need for improving warfighter recovery from
injury by developing technologies that can accelerate the restoration and repair of complex wounds. This program will develop
approaches that combine high-resolution biosensors to track the healing process in real-time with bioactuators to stimulate
restoration where and when needed. The primary challenge to achieving this is the lack of a closed-loop interface that can
manipulate highly complex signaling pathways in wounds and the developmental interdependencies that scale from cell to tissue.
The program will develop new methods to convert dense multi-modal information into the body's native repair processes, and will
leverage artificial intelligence to guide the delivery of the signals necessary for healing. Advances from this program will produce
bioactuators that can release diverse stimuli with high spatial and temporal resolution, and biosensors that provide the requisite in
situ measurement to guide the healing process.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Integrate sensors and actuators for one physiological wound healing process into a single platform.
- Demonstrate closed-loop control over at least one physiological wound healing process.
- Demonstrate that predictions made by the machine-learning algorithms occur at therapy-relevant time scales without sacrificing
accuracy.
- Initiate independent verification and validation (IV&V) of in vivo biocompatibility of integrated systems.
- Demonstrate improved wound healing for two stages of wound healing.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Integrate sensors and actuators for all required physiological processes into a single platform.
15.902 20.421 2.970
Volume 1 - 32
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 33 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
TRS-01 / TRANSFORMATIVE SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Demonstrate that the integrated system can fully heal wounds in half the time relative to current state of art or reduce
deleterious effects of normal healing in vivo.
- Demonstrate that the algorithmic model predicts the wound stage with at least 90% accuracy.
- Initiate studies of gastrointestinal influence on synthesis and repair function of the skeletal and muscular systems.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects the completion of individual component development and testing activities in FY 2023 to focus on
final system integration and demonstrations in FY 2024.
Title: Engineering Functional Materials with Biology*
Description: *Formerly Engineered Living Materials (ELM)
The Engineering Functional Materials with Biology program is pursuing new approaches to engineer complex biological systems
for enhanced capabilities and functional materials to improve military infrastructure design and logistics, sensors, and platforms.
Complex biological materials and systems have unique properties (e.g., controlled porosity, high strength-to-weight ratios, tunable
magnetic and optical properties, etc.) not only because of the inherent biological components but also because of how those
components are assembled together from microscopic to macroscopic scales. Engineering biology tools and techniques are
now at a stage to improve the production, organization, and function of biomaterial systems for a variety of expanded capabilities,
including those that can help DoD address supply chain challenges. This program is conducting research to enable information-
driven assembly of hierarchical biological systems for materials as well as alternate approaches for the production of critical
molecules and materials. Advances in this program will impact: next-generation material design for optical and electronic
applications; military approaches to infrastructure design in austere environments; as well as established methods for the
manufacture and maintenance of military platforms.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Demonstrate methods for alternate approaches to identify, engineer, and biomanufacture molecules in austere environments.
- Initiate modeling to predict the feasibility, logistics, and economics of biomanufacturing in austere environments.
- Engineer biological systems that predictably control the composition, size, and architecture of rare earth element (REE)-
containing nanoparticles that exhibit optical and magnetic properties.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Characterize biological manufacturing approaches for increased performance of microbes in austere environments.
- Refine models to predict the feasibility, logistics, and economics of biomanufacturing in austere environments based on
experimental biological data.
5.990 4.309 1.336
Volume 1 - 33
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601101E: DEFENSE RESEARCH SCIENCES
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 34 of 34 R-1 Line #2
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 1
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601101E / DEFENSE RESEARCH SCI
ENCES
Project (Number/Name)
TRS-01 / TRANSFORMATIVE SCIENCES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Demonstrate fabrication of multiple REE-containing magnetic or optically active nanoparticles using a tunable biogenic method
that offers benefits over conventional chemical approaches.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects reduction in biomanufacturing and engineering efforts to focus on characterization and model
refinement.
Title: Biology for Security (BIOSEC)
Description: The Biology for Security (BIOSEC) program seeks to investigate novel approaches to address the DoD need for
rapid detection of unknown and/or emerging biological threats from state actors or violent extremist organizations (VEOs). This
program will investigate approaches for identifying pathogens based on specific behaviors, or phenotypes, such as niche finding
or cell toxicity. Unlike current methods, which rely on a priori knowledge of the pathogen and cannot detect or otherwise analyze
unknown threats, this approach will handle scenarios involving engineered or undiscovered bacterial pathogens that do not have
known hallmarks. Advances in this area will produce a completely new capability to assess the emergence of pathogens and to
detect pathogens that have been specifically engineered to evade detection by traditional methods. Resulting systems may be
used to alert deployed military personnel operating around the world to new biothreats, or in response to a U.S.-based discovery,
outbreak, or pandemic.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Demonstrate integrated platforms that identify pathogens from unknown consortia.
- Transition technology to U.S. government partners tasked with preventing or responding to pathogen outbreaks.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
9.702 6.535 -
Accomplishments/Planned Programs Subtotals
31.594 31.265 4.306
C. Other Program Funding Summary ($ in Millions)
N/A
Remarks
D. Acquisition Strategy
N/A
Volume 1 - 34
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601117E: BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 1 of 8 R-1 Line #5
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 1: Basic
Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601117E / BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
Total Program Element
- 75.071 76.874 50.430 - 50.430 58.058 69.169 67.752 74.426 - -
MED-01: BASIC OPERATIONAL
MEDICAL SCIENCE
- 75.071 76.874 50.430 - 50.430 58.058 69.169 67.752 74.426 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The Basic Operational Medical Science Program Element (PE) will explore and develop basic research in medical-related information and technology leading to
fundamental discoveries, tools, and applications critical to overcoming DoD challenges. This PE will address the Department's identified warfighter medical care related
to prevention and treatment of infectious disease, real-time healthcare interventions of acute and chronic illness and injury, and interventions for improved warfighter
resilience and performance against operational stressors. This PE also supports innovation and robust transition planning in the technology cycle by working with
entrepreneurs to increase the likelihood that DARPA-funded technologies take root in the U.S. and provide new capabilities for national defense.
B. Program Change Summary ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 Base FY 2024 OCO FY 2024 Total
Previous President's Budget 77.518 80.874 67.204 - 67.204
Current President's Budget 75.071 76.874 50.430 - 50.430
Total Adjustments -2.447 -4.000 -16.774 - -16.774
• Congressional General Reductions 0.000 -4.000
• Congressional Directed Reductions 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Rescissions 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Adds 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Directed Transfers 0.000 0.000
• Reprogrammings 0.000 0.000
• SBIR/STTR Transfer -2.447 0.000
• TotalOtherAdjustments - - -16.774 - -16.774
Congressional Add Details ($ in Millions, and Includes General Reductions)
FY 2022 FY 2023
Project: MED-01: BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE
Congressional Add: Novel Analytical and Empirical Approaches for Prediction and Monitoring of Disease Transmission -
Congressional Add
1.500 -
Congressional Add Subtotals for Project: MED-01
1.500 -
Congressional Add Totals for all Projects
1.500 -
Volume 1 - 35
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601117E: BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 2 of 8 R-1 Line #5
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 1: Basic
Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601117E / BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE
Change Summary Explanation
FY 2022: Decrease reflects SBIR/STTR transfer.
FY 2023: Decrease reflects a Congressional reduction for Prior Year Underexecution.
FY 2024: Decrease reflects completion of the Outpacing Infectious Disease, Preventing the Emergence of Disease (PED) and Early Battlefield Interventions
(EBI) programs in FY 2023.
C. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Title: Physiological Overmatch
Description: Warfighters operate under extreme physiological conditions, sometimes with limited resources and manpower,
and must acclimate quickly to changing operational needs. The Physiological Overmatch program is investigating innovative
approaches to allow the warfighter to adapt rapidly to operational challenges during deployment by developing novel detection
and treatment systems. The program will initiate work in aiding the deployed soldier's ability to defend against biological
pathogens, resist fatigue, combat sleep deprivation, receive adequate nutrition and hydration, and maintain a high capacity for
teaming and operational synchronization. This program will seek to understand the biological mechanisms of fatigue, and teaming
to enable improvements to warfighter health and operational performance. Advances in engineered cells, bioelectronics, and
cellular feedback circuits will be investigated to provide controlled, in vivo release of therapies as needed by the warfighter. This
approach represents a significant enhancement to warfighter performance by providing protection and resilience from variables
that impact operational readiness.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Demonstrate localization of the carrier device within a realistic model, such as phantom tissue.
- Validate that a beneficial biomolecule can be delivered in vivo.
- Confirm biocompatibility of the carrier device for at least 30 days in a large animal model.
- Develop a prototype sensor for tracking circadian rhythm.
- Assess stability of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in breath samples stored for >12 hours.
- Explore experimental approaches to assess physiological factors contributing to the impact of sleep loss on health and
performance.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Confirm that the carrier device remains active and localized for at least 60 days in vivo.
- Develop secure software to signal therapy activation in vivo.
- Demonstrate decontamination of five bacterial pathogens in vivo.
- Begin data collection to assess the contribution of gut-derived biomolecules and metabolites in regulating sleep and arousal
states.
16.754 16.695 14.922
Volume 1 - 36
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601117E: BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 3 of 8 R-1 Line #5
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 1: Basic
Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601117E / BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE
C. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Identify neurophysiological biomarkers of team coordination and synchrony.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects finalization of the integrated carrier design in preparation for the clinical studies.
Title: Combatting Anti-Microbial Resistant Pathogens
Description: The Combatting Anti-Microbial Resistant Pathogens program is investigating fundamental methods for using
preexisting host machinery as a technology to create medical countermeasures that degrade or deactivate pathogen targets.
The DoD has long recognized the warfighter's outsized risk of exposure to biological threat agents and to infectious disease,
including the increasing prevalence of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) organisms that are ranked as a Tier 1 threat to the U.S.
military. Similarly, the danger posed by bacterial biothreats persists with few countermeasures available. Key advances expected
from this research include identifying methods to discover and develop new classes of therapeutics for AMR bacteria, bacterial
biothreats, and other DoD-relevant diseases and threats. These approaches represent a significant departure from conventional
therapeutics, which typically rely on a limited number of small molecules with a narrow set of targets and mechanism of action.
Advances in this area may be applied to the mitigation of known, new, and emerging diseases that impact military readiness and
pose a global health threat.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Investigate the ability of chimeric molecules to inhibit DoD-relevant pathogen threats in vitro.
- Demonstrate generalizable therapeutic candidate discovery and optimization approaches.
- Develop chimeric molecules showing specificity and efficacy against DoD-relevant pathogen threats in cell culture.
- Define mechanisms of degradation for targets captured using chimeric medical countermeasures.
- Refine rapid drug identification and screening approaches for degradation or deactivation of novel pathogen targets.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Demonstrate in vivo safety and specificity of chimeric-molecule-based medical countermeasures against selected pathogens.
- Demonstrate chimeric molecules with greater than five-times the efficacy of state-of-the-art treatment against selected
pathogens.
- Demonstrate rapidly formulated and assembled chimeric molecules with greater than five-times the efficacy of state-of-the-art
treatment against pathogens.
- Develop up to four novel chimeric countermeasures for full optimization and potential Investigational New Drug (IND) application
submission.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
15.388 14.375 9.423
Volume 1 - 37
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601117E: BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 4 of 8 R-1 Line #5
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 1: Basic
Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601117E / BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE
C. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
The FY 2024 decrease reflects the completion of discovery efforts and movement towards optimization and validation of selected
approaches.
Title: Improved Interventions
Description: The Improved Interventions program seeks to develop novel pharmacological interventions to quickly and
holistically optimize the performance of the healthy warfighter and improve treatment of the injured warfighter. The status quo for
pharmacological intervention is one drug, one target, which often has many undesirable side effects. This program will create a
platform to develop pharmacological interventions capable of modulating multiple targets within biological systems of the body,
which will reduce side effects and promote safety. Research will focus on the integration of novel bioinformatics approaches, and
new chemical synthesis methods to treat the system in order to achieve desired physiological effects. Progress in this area will
lead to new pharmacological discovery and design principles that will lead to interventions that can be used to augment physical
fitness training and maintenance for military populations, and novel battlefield-ready anesthetics to safely treat and support
battlefield causalities.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Analyze drug combination effects and compare to single drug therapy.
- Optimize novel multi-target drugs for activity based on response profiles.
- Identify protein targets and synthesize drugs in less than 60 days.
- Use biological model systems to validate multi-target drug actions for therapeutic use.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Demonstrate that the optimized novel multi-target drug has greater effectiveness than standard of care.
- Determine therapeutic index (i.e., toxic dose/effective dose) of the novel multi-target drug.
- Characterize pharmacokinetic properties of the novel multi-target drugs.
- Begin Investigational New Drug (IND) enabling preclinical studies for pharmacology and toxicology.
- Establish methods to evaluate neural circuitry underlying the desired state of anesthesia.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects late-stage platform validation and a decrease in early-stage discovery work.
15.122 15.912 6.461
Title: Assessing Immune Memory (AIM)
Description: Warfighter defense against pathogens is reliant on multiple vaccinations administered repeatedly to maintain
effective protection. Building upon initial discoveries and technology development under the Outpacing Infectious Disease
program, the Assessing Immune Memory (AIM) program will seek to increase the longevity of infectious disease protection in
warfighters by establishing tools that can be employed in new prophylactic development pipelines. Specifically, this program will
- 11.757 12.124
Volume 1 - 38
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601117E: BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 5 of 8 R-1 Line #5
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 1: Basic
Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601117E / BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE
C. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
develop a research and evaluation (R&E) tool to predict vaccine duration through the understanding of critical host factors and
immune responses. Further, the tool will evaluate prophylaxis candidates and leverage effective modalities for delivery against
emerging, re-emerging, or entirely unknown pathogens. Advances in this program will enable the DoD to increase the number of
effective and long-lasting vaccines for warfighters, ensuring broader and consistent immunity in field-forward environments.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Initiate studies to uncover host mechanisms that lead to the production of long-lasting immune memory cells after antigen
presentation.
- Determine immune system challenge and appropriate biological model for profiling approaches.
- Initiate characterization of established immune responses to selected antigens.
- Begin to collect and compare molecular profiles of stimulated immune response.
- Begin developing computational frameworks required for analyzing large collections of molecular and phenotypic data.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Collect molecular profiles at early and late timepoints following vaccine challenge in relevant biological models.
- Define cell and molecular features that correlate with vaccines that provide observably long immune protection.
- Perform single cell molecular analyses to categorize cell-type identifiers that contribute to immune memory.
- Begin to integrate data to develop a roadmap for immune memory.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects minor program repricing.
Title: Preventing Blood Stream Infections in Warfighters After Trauma
Description: Bloodstream infections (BSI) are a significant source of morbidity in service members that sustain combat-related
injuries. Trauma temporarily degrades the efficacy of the host immune system thereby increasing the risk of life-threating
opportunistic infections from fungi and bacteria that enter into the blood. If unchecked, bloodborne fungi and bacteria lead to
debilitating conditions such as invasive fungal infections (IFI), sepsis, and shock. The Preventing Blood Stream Infections in
Warfighters After Trauma program will develop a systems-level approach to design particles that prevent BSI in warfighters that
suffer trauma from blast. Prophylactic systems circulating in the blood will be developed to bind infectious particles in the blood
early and label pathogens for clearance; and deliver drugs to destroy pathogens and/or restore healthy physiology. Ultimately this
program will develop novel technologies that will protect service members from morbidity and mortality associated with BSI.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Initiate development of carriers that can circulate in the bloodstream for up to three days.
- Evaluate the binding affinity of pathogen-agnostic recognition sequences to different types of fungi and bacteria.
- - 7.500
Volume 1 - 39
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601117E: BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 6 of 8 R-1 Line #5
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 1: Basic
Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601117E / BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE
C. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Measure the ability for newly designed prophylactic to bind, clear, and destroy target pathogens.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects program initiation.
Title: Outpacing Infectious Disease
Description: Military readiness and national security depend on the health and well-being of military service members.
Unfortunately, today's antivirals and vaccines are often circumvented by fast-mutating viruses that evolve to develop drug
resistance. Military service members often deploy to areas with such diseases that require new protective measures to maintain
readiness. The Outpacing Infectious Disease program is investigating fundamental methods for using biology as a technology to
create adaptive therapeutic response mechanisms to outpace viral diseases such as enabling co-evolution and co-transmission
of newly developed therapeutics to ultimately outcompete the pathogen. Key advances expected from this research include
identifying methods to discover and develop new classes of dynamic therapeutics for fast-mutating viruses. Additionally,
methodologies to predict the duration of immune protection are being explored. This approach represents a significant departure
from conventional antiviral therapies, which typically rely on static solutions and continuous re-formulation and re-development in
attempt to keep pace with emerging strains and disease variants. Advances in this area may be applied to the mitigation of known,
new, or emerging diseases that impact military readiness and pose a national security risk as a potential pandemic.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Submit Investigational New Drug (IND) package for clinical trials for therapeutic interfering particles (TIPs).
- Complete current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) production of TIPs for clinical trial.
- Initiate clinical safety trial for TIPs.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
6.889 2.501 -
Title: Preventing the Emergence of Disease (PED)
Description: Many emerging infectious disease outbreaks have origins in animal reservoirs and occur in areas where DoD
personnel are deployed, putting them at high risk of endemic and emerging diseases. The Preventing the Emergence of Disease
(PED) program is investigating how animal pathogens are transmitted to humans and exploring novel approaches to prevent
these events. Tools such as detailed molecular analysis and bioinformatics will be leveraged. Researchers will develop models
to quantify the probability of pathogen disease transmission from animals to humans. Promising intervention approaches will be
developed to prevent viral species jumps from animal reservoirs to humans. Predicting such jumps is a key capability to mitigating
outbreaks originating in animal reservoirs.
FY 2023 Plans:
4.882 2.716 -
Volume 1 - 40
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601117E: BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 7 of 8 R-1 Line #5
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 1: Basic
Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601117E / BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE
C. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Demonstrate vaccine stability and efficacy via Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V).
- Validate phylodynamic and multi-scale modeling for multiple host species and diseases.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
Title: Early Battlefield Interventions (EBI)
Description: The Early Battlefield Interventions (EBI) program is exploring new methods to slow and limit damage caused by
acute trauma, injury, and bloodstream infection often suffered by warfighters under far-forward conditions. Research efforts
will apply advances in molecular and cellular biology, cell signaling, and biomaterials to develop new tools to alter the time
course of pathological processes and prevent bloodstream infections in warfighters that suffer trauma. This tactic is a departure
from traditional therapeutic approaches that seek to control symptoms associated with active infections or innate physiological
responses to tissue trauma. Therapeutics will be developed to rapidly detect infections following trauma and deliver therapeutics
to restore healthy physiology. Advances in this area may be applied to the development of both prophylactic and therapeutic
medical countermeasures to forward-deployed service members.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Demonstrate biostasis induction at observable and molecular levels in complex, multicellular biological systems.
- Evaluate the time course of biostasis induction and reversibility in multicellular systems.
- Detail mechanisms underlying biostasis, as well as potential negative effects (e.g., toxicity, DNA damage, etc.) in multicellular
biological systems.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
14.536 12.918 -
Accomplishments/Planned Programs Subtotals
73.571 76.874 50.430
FY 2022 FY 2023
Congressional Add: Novel Analytical and Empirical Approaches for Prediction and Monitoring of Disease
Transmission - Congressional Add
FY 2022 Accomplishments: - Initiated research in novel analytical and empirical approaches for prediction and
monitoring of disease transmission.
1.500 -
Congressional Adds Subtotals
1.500 -
Volume 1 - 41
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0601117E: BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 8 of 8 R-1 Line #5
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 1: Basic
Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0601117E / BASIC OPERATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE
D. Other Program Funding Summary ($ in Millions)
N/A
Remarks
E. Acquisition Strategy
N/A
Volume 1 - 42
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602115E: BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 1 of 10 R-1 Line #10
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602115E / BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
Total Program Element
- 100.475 126.958 141.081 - 141.081 167.205 151.215 151.066 151.066 - -
BT-01: BIOMEDICAL
TECHNOLOGY
- 100.475 126.958 141.081 - 141.081 167.205 151.215 151.066 151.066 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
This Biomedical Technology Program Element (PE) focuses on applied research for medical related technologies that will maintain warfighter health and performance
before, during, or after operations. Successful technologies within this Program Element will maintain warfighter health against emerging threats through novel biothreat
detection, rapid medical countermeasure identification and development, and distributed production of effective therapeutics. In-theater, warfighter health will be
maintained through the development of field-relevant technologies such as reliable and accessible critical medical resources, novel detection and protection capabilities
for traumatic brain injury, and rapid, effective triage of battlefield injuries. Technologies are also being developed to provide new capabilities for warfighter recovery from
sustained injury including, but not limited to, spinal cord injury or hearing loss. Additionally, this PE will improve warfighter readiness by characterizing and assaying
physical and cognitive performance to drive data-driven awareness. This PE also supports innovation and robust transition planning in the technology cycle by working
with entrepreneurs to increase the likelihood that DARPA-funded technologies take root in the U.S. and provide new capabilities for national defense.
B. Program Change Summary ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 Base FY 2024 OCO FY 2024 Total
Previous President's Budget 108.698 106.958 120.671 - 120.671
Current President's Budget 100.475 126.958 141.081 - 141.081
Total Adjustments -8.223 20.000 20.410 - 20.410
• Congressional General Reductions 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Directed Reductions 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Rescissions 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Adds 0.000 20.000
• Congressional Directed Transfers 0.000 0.000
• Reprogrammings -4.684 0.000
• SBIR/STTR Transfer -3.539 0.000
• TotalOtherAdjustments - - 20.410 - 20.410
Congressional Add Details ($ in Millions, and Includes General Reductions)
FY 2022 FY 2023
Project: BT-01: BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
Congressional Add: Prophylactic Medical Countermeasure for Acute Radiation Syndrome - Congressional Add
- 20.000
Congressional Add Subtotals for Project: BT-01
- 20.000
Volume 1 - 43
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602115E: BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 2 of 10 R-1 Line #10
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602115E / BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
Congressional Add Details ($ in Millions, and Includes General Reductions)
FY 2022 FY 2023
Congressional Add Totals for all Projects
- 20.000
Change Summary Explanation
FY 2022: Decrease reflects SBIR/STTR transfer and reprogrammings.
FY 2023: Increase reflects a Congressional add for Prophylactic Medical Countermeasure for Acute Radiation Syndrome.
FY 2024: Increase reflects initiation of the Correction of Hearing Disorders program as well as the scaling up of efforts in the Rapid Battlefield Triage program.
C. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Title: Neural Signal Interfaces and Applications (NSIA)
Description: As part of their daily duties, many military personnel must handle large volumes of data and interact with complex
systems. These tasks could be made less difficult with advanced neurotechnology platforms, but all such devices currently
require invasive surgery to implement. The Neural Signal Interfaces and Applications (NSIA) program is developing non-invasive
neurotechnologies that are able to interface with the nervous system with high resolution and precision without surgery. NSIA
is utilizing recent advances to transduce neural signals through tissue. Resulting technologies will restore function in wounded
warriors.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Conduct studies to collect safety data to enable regulatory approval for clinical system evaluations.
- Submit safety evaluation data and documentation to request regulatory approval for further system evaluations.
- Conduct refined tests evaluating control of multiple outputs in real-time.
- Conduct refined tests evaluating reception of multiple channels of information in real-time.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Evaluate impact of environmental factors (e.g., location, ambient noise) on system performance.
- Assess performance when using multiple brain regions to generate outputs.
- Assess performance when sending multiple channels of information to multiple brain regions.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects minor program repricing.
16.205 9.716 9.231
Title: Forensic Indicators of Threat Exposure (FITE)
Description: The DoD responds to a variety of chemical, biological and radiological threats around the globe that require
protective medical countermeasures to ensure force health protection and warfighter readiness. The Forensic Indicators of
Threat Exposure (FITE) program is developing a field-deployable resource to reveal an individual's exposure history to chemical,
biological and radiological threats by characterizing epigenetic signatures in an individual's genome. The program will create the
14.403 5.251 5.510
Volume 1 - 44
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602115E: BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 3 of 10 R-1 Line #10
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602115E / BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
C. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
framework for modular technology capable of performing forensic or diagnostic analysis using epigenetic information to provide
high specificity of the type of exposure and when it occurred. This novel capability could serve as a field-forward forensic tool for
use by the DoD to assist in Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) threat detection and response. FITE will also
evolve new medical countermeasure (MCM) modalities against chemical and biological threat exposures from bench science to
translational science that will advance these modalities into clinical use for the warfighter.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Finalize development of human exposure signatures based on collected samples.
- Assess the ability to distinguish viral from bacterial host-based epigenetic signatures in clinical samples.
- Assess the ability to identify time since exposure or acute infection from collected samples.
- Finalize analytical methods to increase sensitivity and specificity for validated human exposure signatures.
- Perform tests on platform prototype for module integration and workflow implementation in militarily relevant, field forward
settings.
- Assess ability of field forward device to analyze epigenetic signatures with optimum sensitivity and specificity from biological
samples in the field.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Investigate of targeted delivery of medical countermeasures to specific tissues/cell types.
- Initiate animal model development for testing of new medical countermeasure paradigms.
- Initiate characterization of immune system responses to novel medical countermeasures in animal models.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects minor program repricing.
Title: Improved Personnel Placement (IPP)
Description: The Improved Personnel Placement (IPP) program aims to improve force lethality and overmatch by identifying
candidates for specialized military roles and developing assays to determine physical/cognitive states in order to maximize
performance and resilience, while minimizing attrition. IPP will study the relationships between genotype and phenotype to
identify and measure biomarkers for unique physical, cognitive, and behavioral traits associated with a broad spectrum of military
specialties. The program will link these phenotypic traits to underlying biological gene expression circuits driving performance.
This knowledge will help individualize training and provide novel measures of physical/cognitive states for specialized roles, while
providing training cadres greater precision for identifying the correct candidates without bias. Measuring an individual's biological
system will ensure that they achieve their maximum potential while facilitating readiness and resilience for the DoD.
FY 2023 Plans:
18.089 14.971 15.629
Volume 1 - 45
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602115E: BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 4 of 10 R-1 Line #10
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602115E / BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
C. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Finalize and implement protocols for measuring phenotypic traits and biological features.
- Demonstrate validated phenotypic and biological measurements linked to elite performance.
- Automate data acquisition and computational tools used to perform in silico analysis of phenotypic and biological features.
- Research biomarkers that correlate with high-performing physical/cognitive states and identify tasks to be used as proxies for
performance in real-world deployment settings.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Generate a preliminary list of published molecular biomarkers indicative of readiness as targets for molecular sensor
development.
- Begin development of sensor modalities for molecular biomarkers known to be indicative of readiness and associated with
physical tasks.
- Initiate evaluation of preliminary models for predicting physical task readiness.
- Prepare for a demonstration of sensor outputs and model results within a militarily relevant cohort.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects minor program repricing.
Title: Deployable Medical Countermeasures for Warfighter Readiness
Description: Maintaining robust protection and treatment against infectious disease threats during stabilization operations (e.g.,
Humanitarian and Disaster Relief [HADR]) requires rapid drug discovery and reducing manufacturing and supply chain burdens.
A major limitation of our current response to emerging biological and chemical threats is the lack of immediate availability of ideal
medical countermeasures (MCMs) for rapid response, which includes high quality nucleic acid templates for MCM manufacturing.
These nucleic acids are also critical for R&D applications ranging from synthetic biology to the testing and development of
medical countermeasures. Current DNA production capabilities are limited to less than a handful of US-based manufacturers;
it takes weeks to months to produce adequate quality and quantity of DNA at these manufacturing sites and ship them to
downstream partners. The Deployable Medical Countermeasures for Warfighter Readiness program aims to develop an on-
demand deployable platform to manufacture nucleic acid drugs safely at scale, in short timeframes. The platform will be comprised
of a fully contained system capable of selectively manufacturing relevant doses of current Good Manufacturing Process (cGMP)
grade nucleic acid therapeutics at or near the point of care. This effort will also develop high quality gene-length DNA for research
and development. This on-demand platform will enable countermeasures capable of combating novel threats, allowing a small
force to prevent regional outbreaks from becoming global emergencies.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Determine the most effective methods for nucleic acid synthesis.
- Demonstrate assembly and amplification of nucleic acids using breadboard instrumentation and large-scale amplification.
21.168 20.133 27.007
Volume 1 - 46
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602115E: BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 5 of 10 R-1 Line #10
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602115E / BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
C. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Select final formulation characteristics and production process for suitable medical countermeasure safety, efficacy, and
stability.
- Select full panel of in-line analytical methods.
- Initiate development of an integrated alpha prototype instrument for messenger RNA (mRNA) synthesis and purification.
- Develop methods for DNA synthesis and assembly with low error rates.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Demonstrate an evolved, integrated and automated process for production and formulation of mRNA.
- Demonstrate integrated automation of mRNA quality analytical methods.
- Initiate design of mRNA instrument beta prototype.
- Develop schematics for integration of modules for nucleic acid synthesis, purification, and analysis into a DNA instrument alpha
prototype system.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects expanded investment in technology to develop an integrated instrument for synthesis of DNA
molecules for research and development applications as well as medical countermeasures.
Title: Bridging the Gap after Spinal Cord Injury
Description: The Bridging the Gap after Spinal Cord Injury program is developing and integrating technologies to heal and
restore function associated with spinal cord injuries. This program will significantly advance treatment technologies by developing
implantable, adaptive devices to address different stages of spinal cord injury (acute, sub-acute, and chronic). For early phases
of injury, this program will develop technologies for real-time biomarker tracking and delivery of therapies to stabilize or rebuild
nerve connections at the injury site. For final phase of injury, the Bridging the Gap after Spinal Cord Injury program will develop
and integrate a network of devices deployed across the body to effectively create a synthetic nervous system and "bridge the
gap" of the spinal cord injury to restore function and sensory feedback. The Bridging the Gap after Spinal Cord Injury program will
dramatically improve the quality of life for wounded warfighters and veterans suffering from spinal cord injuries.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Improve device design and performance features based on results from prototype testing.
- Integrate risk mitigation strategies for nervous system access to aid functional restoration.
- Initiate studies in an animal model to establish safety of prototype devices and therapies to meet regulatory requirements.
- Initiate efficacy experiments in an animal model for the integrated system of systems to mitigate spinal cord injury.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Evaluate safety of devices, subsystems and algorithms in vivo.
- Assess efficacy of the injury mitigation systems in vivo.
10.724 12.016 17.815
Volume 1 - 47
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602115E: BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 6 of 10 R-1 Line #10
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602115E / BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
C. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Initiate experiments to establish implanted device longevity and compatibility with imaging systems.
- Improve risk mitigation strategies for the complete system and initiate regulatory body engagement.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects the cost of demonstrating the efficacy of spinal cord injury subsystems in multiple large animal
models.
Title: Distributed Access to Critical Biotherapeutics for Warfighters
Description: The goal of the Distributed Access to Critical Biotherapeutics for Warfighters program is to ensure DoD access to
critical medical countermeasures (MCMs) by establishing the foundational technologies needed for fully distributable, on-demand
manufacturing of protein-based MCMs and critical reagents. To achieve this, investments will be made in technologies that
enable immediate, high-yield synthesis of bioactive protein MCMs. This technology will allow the DoD to rapidly secure access to
therapeutic proteins and to enzymes needed for nucleic-acid based MCM synthesis without reliance on complex supply chains or
slow development cycles.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Determine the yield of multiple classes of protein-based MCMs or reagents using novel production platforms.
- Establish baseline lead time to protein production using the novel production platforms.
- Establish a process that adds one type of protein modification to enhance the quality of the protein-based MCM.
- Determine ability of novel biological platform to produce therapeutic proteins that are equivalent to state of the art in terms of
functionality and quality.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Identify effectors that increase protein expression yields.
- Develop novel bioreactors for protein production in a cell free system.
- Demonstrate the addition of modifications to proteins produced in a cell free system.
- Conduct a capability demonstration to validate the production of a medical countermeasure at a yield relevant to operational
timeframes.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects minor program repricing.
8.809 10.020 10.520
Title: Next-Generation Combat Casualty Care
Description: The Next-Generation Combat Casualty Care program will develop advances in critical efforts to preserve warfighter
life and well-being in the battlefields of the future. This research will directly address a leading cause of potentially preventable
battlefield casualties by investigating new approaches for developing whole blood substitutes for traumatic injury that can be
7.245 10.733 11.260
Volume 1 - 48
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602115E: BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 7 of 10 R-1 Line #10
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602115E / BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
C. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
deployed on the battlefield in far forward settings. Additional potential uses apply to disaster relief, mass casualty events, and
stabilization missions. Advances within this program will ensure that the U.S. remains able to care for service members in peer
and near-peer conflict by addressing gaps in combat casualty care.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Initiate efficacy assessments of therapeutic formulations against hemorrhage using in vitro models.
- Initiate safety and efficacy demonstrations of stabilized products using in vitro models.
- Provide initial proof-of-concept for stabilization and manufacturing approach of products.
- Prepare for initial in vivo studies to demonstrate efficacy against hemorrhage.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Initiate efficacy and safety assessments of therapeutic formulations against hemorrhage using animal models.
- Test stability over operationally important temperature ranges using in vitro models.
- Provide initial proof-of-concept for scaled-up manufacturing of products.
- Prepare for in vivo studies to demonstrate efficacy in complex trauma models.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects minor program repricing.
Title: Rapid Battlefield Triage
Description: The Rapid Battlefield Triage program will advance capabilities to quickly triage warfighters requiring urgent life-
saving medical intervention and enable medical resources to provide an appropriate response in current and future battlefields.
Today, triage at point-of-injury is limited by subjective assessments, tools that are manually intensive, and physiological signatures
with little diagnostic and prognostic value. This program will build on recent biomarker discoveries and innovations in sensing
platforms to develop field-portable technologies that support triage in the most challenging operational environments. By
optimizing allocation of scarce medical resources and scaling to multiple casualties, these devices will help far-forward units
maximize their fighting strength against adversaries that inflict large numbers of casualties and constrain evacuation to advanced
medical facilities.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Initiate development of trauma database to support injury signature development and validation.
- Begin to investigate novel physiological signatures of injury type and severity.
- Begin to develop algorithms to clean and process sensor data.
- Correlate physiological signatures of injury and severity with sensor outputs.
- 8.907 20.111
Volume 1 - 49
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602115E: BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 8 of 10 R-1 Line #10
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602115E / BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
C. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Develop experimental models to test sensor technologies.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Expand database of trauma signatures with additional sensor modalities.
- Evaluate novel physiological signatures of injury type and severity.
- Begin to evaluate approaches for stand-off capture of injury signature by semi-autonomous systems.
- Begin to evaluate field-portable triage solutions in challenge competitions.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects initiating stand-off capture of physiological data and processing to identify injury signatures in real
world simulations.
Title: Neurological Assessment and Protection from Brain Injury*
Description: * Formerly Neuroprotection from Brain Injury
Building upon technologies discovered under the Restoring Cognitive Capability program (budgeted in PE 0602715E, Project
MBT-02), the Neurological Assessment and Protection from Brain Injury program will transform our current detection and
protection strategies against traumatic brain injury (TBI), such as injury from blast exposure. This program will develop multi-
sensory fieldable TBI assessment tools and prophylactic countermeasures to prevent severe brain injury. Current available tools
in far forward operating environments for these injuries are lacking especially those that effectively discriminate between mild- and
medium-level trauma. These novel technologies will change the paradigm for treatment of TBI by preventing injury rather than
attempting to reverse or repair it.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Establish study designs, testing infrastructure, and standards compatible with FDA regulatory guidance for blast models and
countermeasure development.
- Evaluate biological events immediately following TBI.
- Identify candidate biological events that can be targeted for developing protective or immediate treatment countermeasures.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Investigate approaches to deliver countermeasures with high temporal, and spatial precision.
- Identify candidate molecular pathways to develop countermeasures.
- Link the first biological events to downstream cellular or molecular cascades known to result in cognitive, psychological, or
behavioral symptoms of TBI in vivo.
- 9.761 15.609
Volume 1 - 50
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602115E: BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 9 of 10 R-1 Line #10
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602115E / BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
C. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Initiate platform design for TBI assessment tools and protective or immediate treatment countermeasures.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects scaling up of research activities to initiate assessment of countermeasure platform development.
Title: Correction of Hearing Disorders
Description: Hearing loss, ringing in the ears, and other hearing disorders are complex conditions that affect millions of service
members and veterans. The Correction of Hearing Disorders program will create a new class of devices and therapies for hearing
disorders. These novel treatments will be developed as a platform technology--integrated, modular, reliable, and adaptable to a
patient's particular condition. Research in this area will improve function for service members and veterans with hearing disorders.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Evaluate models of hearing information processing that will guide development of treatments.
- Evaluate novel biocompatible nanomaterials and tissue engineering approaches to image and restore auditory function.
- Assess efficacy of electronic and biological systems approaches to restore processing of auditory information in the inner ear.
- Initiate development of plans for modular, integrated auditory function restoration.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects program initiation.
- - 8.389
Title: Pandemic Prevention
Description: Military personnel are deployed all over the world for traditional operations that can involve exposure to endemic
infectious disease, and are often specifically called upon in response to emerging or re-emerging disease outbreaks with
pandemic potential (e.g., Ebola). In both instances, the DoD needs effective countermeasures to protect its deployed forces and
maintain warfighter readiness. The Pandemic Prevention program is focusing on novel methods to accelerate countermeasure
discovery, pre-clinical testing, and manufacturing. This program seeks to advance and integrate newly developed approaches
including bioinformatics assessment of genetic sequencing and nucleic acid-based vaccines and to address technology
bottlenecks associated with each stage of medical countermeasure development. Additional research will investigate new
methods improving the manufacturability, distribution, and delivery of novel therapeutics. Pandemic Prevention will enable an
integrated therapeutic development platform that leverages state-of-the-art technologies to prevent disease outbreaks.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Investigate novel mRNA formulations for increased stability of the formulated mRNA product.
- Initiate pre-clinical studies to facilitate a Phase I clinical study of an antibody product that binds and neutralizes more than one
target.
3.832 5.450 -
Volume 1 - 51
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602115E: BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 10 of 10 R-1 Line #10
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602115E / BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
C. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Complete clinical monitoring of patients in a Phase I gene-encoded antibody clinical safety study.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
Accomplishments/Planned Programs Subtotals
100.475 106.958 141.081
FY 2022 FY 2023
Congressional Add: Prophylactic Medical Countermeasure for Acute Radiation Syndrome - Congressional Add
FY 2023 Plans: - Initiate research for prophylactic medical countermeasure for acute radiation syndrome.
- 20.000
Congressional Adds Subtotals
- 20.000
D. Other Program Funding Summary ($ in Millions)
N/A
Remarks
E. Acquisition Strategy
N/A
Volume 1 - 52
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 1 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
Total Program Element
- 463.806 383.270 333.029 - 333.029 399.233 393.917 399.742 401.742 - -
IT-02: HIGH PRODUCTIVITY,
HIGH-PERFORMANCE
RESPONSIVE
ARCHITECTURES
- 27.000 11.250 15.000 - 15.000 18.750 15.000 15.000 0.000 - -
IT-03: CYBER SECURITY
- 242.359 183.786 167.459 - 167.459 222.698 199.752 171.440 175.353 - -
IT-04: ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE AND HUMAN-
MACHINE SYMBIOSIS
- 194.447 188.234 150.570 - 150.570 157.785 179.165 213.302 226.389 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The efforts described in this Program Element (PE) address the Applied Research associated with the Information and Communications Technology Program that is
directed toward the application of advanced, innovative computing systems and communications technologies. This PE also supports innovation and robust transition
planning in the technology cycle by working with entrepreneurs to increase the likelihood that DARPA funded technologies take root in the U.S. and provide new
capabilities for national defense.
The High Productivity, High-Performance Responsive Architectures project focuses on developing the computer hardware and associated software technologies
required for future computationally- and data-intensive national security applications. Powerful new approaches are needed to manage the rapid growth in available
sensor data, to leverage advances in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing, and to maintain the security of DoD information systems. The
project therefore aims not only to create new computing platforms to include quantum technology, but also to efficiently extract information out of large and chaotic
data sets with embedded and low-size, weight, and power systems. Advances in these areas will allow for DoD electronic systems to collaboratively manage scarce
resources, such as the electromagnetic spectrum, and to adapt to new requirements and situations. Further, the resulting technologies, by being accessible to a wide
range of application developers, will support new, sustainable computing systems for a broad spectrum of scientific and engineering applications.
The Cyber Security project is developing the computing, networking, and cyber security technologies required to protect DoD, U.S. government, and U.S. civilian
information, information infrastructure, and mission-critical information systems. Information technologies enable important existing and new military capabilities and
drive the productivity gains essential to U.S. industry. Meanwhile, cyber threats grow in sophistication and number, and put sensitive data, classified computer programs,
mission-critical information systems, and U.S. economic competitiveness at risk. The technologies developed in this project will enhance the resilience of information
systems to current and emerging cyber threats, enable broad situational awareness of the cyber domain, and provide the basis for accurate, calibrated, and safe cyber
response.
Volume 1 - 53
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 2 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
The Artificial Intelligence and Human-Machine Symbiosis project develops technologies to enable machines to function not only as tools that facilitate human action, but
also as trustworthy partners to human operators. Of particular interest are systems that can understand human language, extract information, and reliably categorize
content contained in diverse media; answer questions, reach conclusions, and propose explanations; and learn, reason, and apply knowledge gained through
experience to respond intelligently to new and unforeseen events. Enabling computing systems with such human-like intelligence is now of critical importance because
the tempo of military operations in emerging domains exceeds that at which unaided humans can orient, understand, and act. The technologies developed in this project
will enable warfighters to make better decisions in complex, time-critical, battlefield environments; intelligence analysts to make sense of massive, incomplete, and
contradictory information; software developers and certifiers to design, implement, evaluate, and accredit cyber-physical systems and other complex software-reliant
systems with greater efficiency and confidence; and unmanned systems and semi-autonomous agents to perform critical missions in contested physical and virtual
environments safely and reliably.
B. Program Change Summary ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 Base FY 2024 OCO FY 2024 Total
Previous President's Budget 480.363 388.270 377.426 - 377.426
Current President's Budget 463.806 383.270 333.029 - 333.029
Total Adjustments -16.557 -5.000 -44.397 - -44.397
• Congressional General Reductions 0.000 -5.000
• Congressional Directed Reductions 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Rescissions 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Adds 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Directed Transfers 0.000 0.000
• Reprogrammings -1.168 0.000
• SBIR/STTR Transfer -15.389 0.000
• TotalOtherAdjustments - - -44.397 - -44.397
Congressional Add Details ($ in Millions, and Includes General Reductions)
FY 2022 FY 2023
Project: IT-02: HIGH PRODUCTIVITY, HIGH-PERFORMANCE RESPONSIVE ARCHITECTURES
Congressional Add: Quantum Computing Acceleration - Congressional Add
25.000 -
Congressional Add Subtotals for Project: IT-02
25.000 -
Project: IT-03: CYBER SECURITY
Congressional Add: AI Cyber Data Analytics (Cyber) - Congressional Add
15.000 -
Congressional Add Subtotals for Project: IT-03
15.000 -
Project: IT-04: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND HUMAN-MACHINE SYMBIOSIS
Congressional Add: AI Cyber Data Analytics (AI) - Congressional Add
10.000 -
Volume 1 - 54
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 3 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Congressional Add Details ($ in Millions, and Includes General Reductions)
FY 2022 FY 2023
Congressional Add Subtotals for Project: IT-04
10.000 -
Congressional Add Totals for all Projects
50.000 -
Change Summary Explanation
FY 2022: Decrease reflects SBIR/STTR transfer and reprogrammings.
FY 2023: Decrease reflects a Congressional reduction for Prior Year Underexecution.
FY 2024: Decrease reflects completion of the Resilient Anonymous Communication for Everyone (RACE), Active Interpretation of Disparate Alternatives (AIDA),
Memory Optimization (MemOp), Cyber-Hunting at Scale (CHASE), Computers and Humans Exploring Software Security (CHESS) and Searchlight programs
in FY 2023, and a shift from development to evaluation activites in the Securing Information for Encrypted Verification and Evaluation (SIEVE) and Knowledge-
directed Artificial Intelligence Reasoning Over Schemas (KAIROS) programs.
Volume 1 - 55
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 4 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-02 / HIGH PRODUCTIVITY, HIGH-
PERFORMANCE RESPONSIVE
ARCHITECTURES
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
IT-02: HIGH PRODUCTIVITY,
HIGH-PERFORMANCE
RESPONSIVE
ARCHITECTURES
- 27.000 11.250 15.000 - 15.000 18.750 15.000 15.000 0.000 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The High Productivity, High-Performance Responsive Architectures project focuses on developing the computer hardware and associated software technologies
required for future computationally- and data-intensive national security applications. Powerful new approaches are needed to manage the rapid growth in available
sensor data, to leverage advances in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing, and to maintain the security of DoD information systems. The
project therefore aims not only to create new computing platforms to include quantum technology, but also to efficiently extract information out of large and chaotic
data sets with embedded and low-size, weight, and power systems. Advances in these areas will allow for DoD electronic systems to collaboratively manage scarce
resources, such as the electromagnetic spectrum, and to adapt to new requirements and situations. Further, the resulting technologies, by being accessible to a wide
range of application developers, will support new, sustainable computing systems for a broad spectrum of scientific and engineering applications.
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Title: Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC)
Description: It has been credibly hypothesized - but not proven - that a fault-tolerant quantum computer of sufficient size would
revolutionize multiple commercial industries and scientific disciplines. Quantum computers are shown to have transformative
potential for critical problems facing the United States, it is in the Government's interest to foster and accelerate commercial
progress towards a truly useful, "utility-scale" quantum computer. Initiated under Alternative Computing to both reduce strategic
risk and realize transformative opportunity, the US2QC thrust will (1) evaluate disruptive designs for utility-scale, fault-tolerant
quantum computers, specifically, systems that can be constructed in less than 10 years; (2) demonstrate each of the enabling
sub-systems and components for these designs; and (3) construct a prototype fault-tolerant quantum computer that demonstrates
that utility-scale design is viable.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Continue evaluating system engineering point designs for at least one approach to building a fault-tolerant quantum computer.
- Continue development of a testing and evaluation framework to determine if a fault-tolerant quantum computer can succeed
within a near-term timeframe.
2.000 11.250 15.000
Volume 1 - 56
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 5 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-02 / HIGH PRODUCTIVITY, HIGH-
PERFORMANCE RESPONSIVE
ARCHITECTURES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Create a testing and evaluation framework for the critical components and sub-systems required to achieve utility-scale
quantum computing within a near-term timeframe.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Implement initial test and evaluation plans designed to verify and validate component and sub-systems required to achieve
utility-scale quantum computing within a near-term timeframe.
- Implement initial test and evaluation plans to verify and validate the quantum architecture underpinning a fault-tolerant quantum
computer.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY2024 increase reflects a shift from initial research to test plan implementation.
Accomplishments/Planned Programs Subtotals
2.000 11.250 15.000
FY 2022 FY 2023
Congressional Add: Quantum Computing Acceleration - Congressional Add
FY 2022 Accomplishments: - Accelerated efforts to verify and validate at least one approach to fault-tolerant
quantum computing.
- Initiated efforts to create a testing and evaluation framework to evaluate system designs for approaches to
building a fault-tolerant quantum computer within the near-term.
- Initiated government-driven applications exploration for utility-scale quantum computing, with the eventual goal
of developing better metrics for verification and validation.
25.000 -
Congressional Adds Subtotals
25.000 -
C. Other Program Funding Summary ($ in Millions)
N/A
Remarks
D. Acquisition Strategy
N/A
Volume 1 - 57
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 6 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-03 / CYBER SECURITY
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
IT-03: CYBER SECURITY
- 242.359 183.786 167.459 - 167.459 222.698 199.752 171.440 175.353 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The Cyber Security project is developing the computing, networking, and cyber security technologies required to protect DoD, U.S. Government, and U.S. civilian
information, information infrastructure, and mission-critical information systems. Information technologies enable important existing and new military capabilities, and
drive the productivity gains essential to U.S. industry. Meanwhile, cyber threats grow in sophistication and number, and put sensitive data, classified computer programs,
mission-critical information systems, and U.S. economic competitiveness at risk. The technologies developed in this project will enhance the resilience of information
systems to current and emerging cyber threats, enable broad situational awareness of the cyber domain, and provide the basis for accurate, calibrated, and safe cyber
response.
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Title: Open, Programmable, Secure 5G (OPS-5G)
Description: The Open, Programmable, Secure 5G (OPS-5G) program is developing open source, 5G network software
that ensures security and stimulates innovation in mobile wireless hardware. Current trends in mobile wireless technology
development are unfavorable in that the U.S. and allies are increasingly dependent on proprietary technologies offered by foreign
suppliers. OPS-5G will develop standards-compliant software for 5G mobile wireless networks that is open source, programmable,
and secure by design. The availability of open-source software for 5G will have the additional benefit of opening the mobile
wireless hardware market to new participants, stimulating innovation and competition. The OPS-5G program aims to move the
mobile wireless market off its current model of opaque, proprietary, and vertically-integrated technology provided by a small
number of dominant vendors to a more robust model with increased transparency and open-source technology created by a
diverse ecosystem of academic and commercial software and hardware developers. OPS-5G will be coordinated with existing
open-source 5G efforts and U.S. Government, DoD, and industry stakeholders.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Develop and evaluate security architectures capable of defending Internet of Things (loT) class devices with low size, weight,
and power characteristics.
- Scale programmability-based network defenses to handle large-scale distributed denial of service attacks, deploy, and evaluate
security architectures on multiple DoD sites.
- Demonstrate secure voice call capabilities over untrusted network nodes to commercial vendors and service providers, the DoD,
and other U.S. Government stakeholders.
20.000 22.300 21.500
Volume 1 - 58
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 7 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-03 / CYBER SECURITY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Test and validate integrated information protection techniques suitable for current and future mobile wireless systems to support
DoD operational security needs.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Extend security architectures capable of defending IoT-class devices while minimizing power requirements.
- Incorporate formally verified code in programmable switches to augment the security of network defenses.
- Develop an operationally relevant network stack and demonstrate secure 5G core networking at DoD installations for multiple
use cases.
- Deploy technologies in commercially available user equipment and a U.S. mobile network operator.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects the shift from development and implementation of 5G network security technologies to
demonstration and evaluation of these technologies in collaboration with industry, DoD, and U.S. Government stakeholders.
Title: Program Analysis for Capability Excellence (PACE)
Description: The Program Analysis for Capability Excellence (PACE) program is developing tools and techniques to
autonomously identify adversary compromise of software, mitigate negative effects of adversary capabilities, and restore the
integrity of compromised software. PACE enables rapid, autonomous response to cyber attacks without using source code or
requiring recompilation.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Develop a prototype autonomous system to identify and mitigate software compromise for a range of systems of increasing
complexity.
- Demonstrate and evaluate the capabilities of the prototype autonomous system by increasing the scale of software under attack
and the sophistication of the simulated attacker.
- Assess autonomous system performance against real-world attacks, including both automated adversaries and human experts.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Demonstrate the versatility of the system by increasing the complexity of the software under attack and the sophistication of the
simulated attacker.
- Assess autonomous system performance against real-world attacks, including both automated adversaries and human experts.
- Collaborate with transition partners to improve and further develop systems to identify and mitigate software compromise that
align with user needs.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
16.000 22.000 17.360
Volume 1 - 59
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 8 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-03 / CYBER SECURITY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
The FY 2024 decrease reflects the shift from development of techniques for autonomously identifying and mitigating compromise
to demonstration and assessment of these techniques.
Title: Verified Security and Performance Enhancement of Large Legacy Software (V-SPELLS)
Description: The Verified Security and Performance Enhancement of Large Legacy Software (V-SPELLS) program is creating
methods and tools to recover succinct models of domain data abstractions and logic from source code, add enhancements to
the models, and convert them to performant new component implementations verified to be compatible and secure. DoD has a
critical need for replacing or reworking components of existing software with more secure and more performant code, including
cases where a key performance or security benefit comes from moving parts of the software to new hardware, such as utilizing
hardware accelerators, isolation enclaves, offload processors, and distributed computation. However, at present, enhancing
legacy software components faces high risk that the new software will not be fully compatible with the existing larger environment.
Moreover, verified software is currently written from scratch, starting with a formal specification, rather than incrementally added to
a system as provably compatible enhancements. V-SPELLS will address these problems by combining novel concepts in verified
programming with recent developments in domain specific languages (DSLs) and systems architecture. V-SPELLS aims to enable
piecewise, compatible-by-construction improvement of software components in legacy DoD systems, providing incremental
software (re)engineering the benefits of formal software verification currently available only to clean-slate development efforts.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Refine automated techniques for decomposing legacy code into functional modules with domain data structure and operation
definitions, enabling safe replacement and enhancement of targeted components with high-level DSL code.
- Integrate development environment for convergent DSL programming with decomposition tools that automate program
understanding and downstream compilation tools that produce executable artifacts.
- Demonstrate utility by replacing a component in a large legacy distributed system.
- Apply tools to DoD legacy components in order to enhance security and performance while ensuring compositional correctness
and safety.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Extend user interface to enable inference of specifications most relevant to component domains and most useful for verification
goals.
- Develop additional analysis and synthesis passes to increase the percentage of legacy code that can be enhanced by the tools.
- Develop connections between component interface models and architectural modeling tools to facilitate adoption by developers.
- Demonstrate the enhancement of software components for a platform representative of DoD needs.
14.750 18.000 18.000
Title: Hardening Development Toolchains Against Emergent Execution Engines (HARDEN) 5.000 11.000 15.500
Volume 1 - 60
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 9 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-03 / CYBER SECURITY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Description: The Hardening Development Toolchains Against Emergent Execution Engines (HARDEN) program is developing
techniques and tools to anticipate, isolate, and mitigate emergent system behaviors and thereby improve security of complex
integrated software. Today's software development toolchains and testing methodologies provide very limited means for reasoning
about adversarial reuse of code as written and designed. This results in unwitting creation of stable, reliable patterns of emergent
behaviors within systems that adversaries can reuse in attacks. The HARDEN approach to preventing adversarial code reuse is
to create techniques, tools, metadata, and instrumentation for reasoning about emergent execution at all stages of the software
development life cycle (SDLC), and for flagging code segments and design patterns where there is high potential for adversarial
reuse and emergent execution. To assess their utility, HARDEN technologies will be applied to critical system elements such
as bootloaders and to integrated software systems. If successful, the technologies developed by HARDEN will facilitate efficient
mitigation of complex code-reuse and emergent-execution vulnerabilities at early SDLC stages, and provide the stronger roots-of-
trust required by zero-trust architectures and high-assurance integrated military software systems.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Develop models and mitigations for composable emergent behaviors and for the reliable chaining of exploit primitives even
where the effects of any single behavior or flaw are reduced by security mitigations.
- Explore automated techniques for identifying implementations that are likely to result in composable emergent behaviors, and
for suggesting transformations of implementations that, while semantically equivalent, mitigate emergent composability and
thereby disrupt exploit programming.
- Initiate application of concepts and techniques to critical system elements such as bootloaders and high-assurance integrated
military software systems with the goal of demonstrating the capability to mitigate complex code-reuse/emergent-execution
vulnerabilities at early SDLC stages.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Refine tools involving formal methods and hardware inference engines for reasoning about emergent behaviors and mitigating
against exploit programming to scale from component-level analysis to subsystems.
- Formalize description languages to construct models of emergent execution including operational exploits and to facilitate usage
by non-formal modeling experts.
- Establish an initial Development, Security, and Operations (DevSecOps)-enabled infrastructure and associated workflow to
enable integration and facilitate flow from modeling to tooling.
- Perform initial evaluation of the effectiveness and accuracy of tools, employing methods such as white-box testing and reverse
engineering.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
Volume 1 - 61
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 10 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-03 / CYBER SECURITY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
The FY 2024 increase reflects expanded development of techniques to mitigate emergent behaviors and initiation of efforts to
evaluate the effectiveness of the tools in mitigating code-reuse and emergent-execution vulnerabilities.
Title: Assured Micropatching (AMP)
Description: The Assured Micropatching (AMP) program is developing technologies to enable the rapid production of targeted
micropatches to repair legacy program binaries with strong guarantees. At present, the emergency patching of legacy software,
even if all relevant information is available, creates too much uncertainty and takes far too long to validate, leaving critical systems
with known flaws vulnerable to adversary attack. AMP will create the capability to analyze, modify, and fix legacy software in
binary form even when the original source code and/or build process is not fully available. The AMP technical approach involves
automatic discovery of known vulnerable components, goal-driven decompilation to isolate and analyze the vulnerable binary
components, and minimal-change patching and recompilation to rebuild affected binaries with strong guarantees that the patch
will not impair the functions of the system. The technologies developed by AMP aim to enable cyber defenders to quickly and
accurately patch legacy binaries in the deployed software systems upon which our military depends.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Enable and demonstrate the automatic patching of vulnerabilities where exploitation does not involve memory corruption.
- Improve and optimize the existing intermediate representations and optimize the location of the provided patch within the
original binary.
- Conduct a challenge event demonstrating patching of a real-time control device currently in use in a cyber physical system.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Update micropatch positioning and verifiability adjustments for challenge platforms and patch types.
- Demonstrate the automatic patching of vulnerabilities for additional use cases of interest to the DoD.
- Conduct a challenge event of a networked system of electronic control modules interoperating over a standard data bus used in
commercial vehicles, with appropriate test cases for the whole-system evaluation.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects the shift from development of technologies to enable the rapid production of targeted micropatches
to demonstration of these tools and techniques on systems of interest to the DoD.
17.000 16.200 9.000
Title: Securing Information for Encrypted Verification and Evaluation (SIEVE)
Description: The Securing Information for Encrypted Verification and Evaluation (SIEVE) program is developing technology
to enable the creation of mathematically verifiable public statements derived from sensitive information that remains hidden.
To accomplish this, SIEVE will produce advances in a cryptographic technique known as zero knowledge (ZK) proofs, which
simultaneously enable mathematical verification of public statements while provably hiding the sensitive information from which
16.000 17.500 9.500
Volume 1 - 62
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 11 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-03 / CYBER SECURITY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
the statement is derived. The advances produced by SIEVE will make it possible and operationally feasible to verify statements
substantially more complex than the current ZK state of the art supports, for example, statements about a software vulnerability
that do not reveal details of how the vulnerability can be exploited.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Determine the feasibility of efficient, end to end verifiable, distributed architectures for private data communication.
- Extend ZK proof compilers to additional problem classes and to accommodate probabilistic problem statements.
- Further enhance post-quantum analyses to reduce theoretical proof complexity for important use cases and potential transition
partners.
- Scale-up ZK proof techniques to realistic DoD and U.S. Government use cases and evaluate their functionality, information
leakage, and robustness to attack in collaboration with potential transition partners.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Develop and demonstrate technologies to enhance the privacy of users of cloud, internet, and wireless technologies to enhance
DoD operational security and counter digital authoritarianism.
- Formulate high-fidelity emulators and modeling tools to enable integration of quantum communications with classical networks.
- Optimize ZK proof techniques and quantify the functionality, information leakage, and robustness to attack of ZK proof
technology in collaboration with potential transition partners.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects ramping down of work to develop ZK proof techniques and focus shifting to evaluation on realistic
use cases of interest to the DoD.
Title: Fast Network Interface Cards (FastNICs)
Description: The Fast Network Interface Cards (FastNICs) program is creating new networking technologies to accelerate the
computation of distributed applications. Today's network and computing subsystems are badly out of balance with each other,
a result of incremental technology advances in networking and computing market silos. This has produced a bottleneck at the
network interface used to connect a machine to an external network, severely limiting the input/output capability. FastNICs will
develop new input/output technologies based on more realistic models of complex multiprocessor compute, interconnect, and
memory subsystems. FastNICs aims to enable a dramatic increase in computational throughput for distributed applications such
as training of machine learning systems.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Scale performance and demonstrate network interface hardware on multi-core central processing units.
11.000 12.000 5.999
Volume 1 - 63
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 12 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-03 / CYBER SECURITY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Design and develop high-fidelity network simulation to enable accurate performance modeling of workflows over various
network topologies.
- Evaluate versions of widely used distributed systems software and operating systems that accommodate massively parallel
input data streams, and demonstrate machine learning applications to commercial vendors, the DoD, and Intelligence Community.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Extend machine learning algorithms to increase hardware utilization and reduce power consumption.
- Demonstrate accurate performance modeling of workflows over various network topologies using high-fidelity network
simulation capability.
- Augment machine learning applications to operate over DoD and commercially available network topologies.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects the shift from development of advanced input/output technologies to workflow demonstrations on
DoD and commercial networks.
Title: Signature Management using Operational Knowledge and Environments (SMOKE)
Description: The Signature Management using Operational Knowledge and Environments (SMOKE) program will develop
signature management technologies that generate evasive cyber infrastructure which minimizes signatures as a source of
attribution. SMOKE will accomplish this goal by incorporating counter-attribution techniques into the design process; quantitatively
measuring attribution risk in real-time; and maintaining evasiveness after infrastructure changes. SMOKE will develop data-driven
tools to automate the planning and execution of threat emulated cyber infrastructure needed for network security assessments by
red teams. SMOKE will also develop data-driven tools to automate the discovery of cyber threat infrastructure signatures. SMOKE
will prototype components that enable red teams to plan, build, and deploy cyber infrastructure that is informed by machine-
readable signatures of sophisticated cyber threats.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Formulate concepts for signature management technologies that enable evasive cyber infrastructure.
- Develop tools to automate the acquisition, management, and disposal of red team cyber infrastructure that mimics advanced
cyber threat actors, to extract infrastructure associations from large-scale cyber datasets, and to generate machine readable
signatures of advanced cyber threats.
- Initiate design and implementation of a distributed development environment that enables concurrent development and
operational assessment across the military services and commands as a means for accelerating the creation of new cyber
capabilities.
FY 2024 Plans:
- 15.179 22.000
Volume 1 - 64
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 13 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-03 / CYBER SECURITY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Extend cyber planning and generation tools to recommend and execute red team cyber operations plans with contingencies
based on real-time attribution risk assessments.
- Develop techniques for collecting red team cyber infrastructure emissions and generating attribution risk assessments.
- Evaluate red team cyber operations planning and generation capabilities in collaboration with potential transition partners.
- Perform integrated demonstrations and initial evaluations of red team capabilities in collaboration with potential transition
partners.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects scaling up of efforts to develop signature management technologies and initiation of performance
evaluations in collaboration with potential transition partners.
Title: Cyber Agents for Security Testing and Learning Environments (CASTLE)
Description: The Cyber Agents for Security Testing and Learning Environments (CASTLE) program, expanding on approaches
initiated in the Cyber-Hunting at Scale (CHASE) program (PE 0602303E, Project IT-03), will develop an AI-toolkit to instantiate
realistic network environments and train cyber agents to enable resilient network operations against advanced persistent threats
(APTs). CASTLE will formulate network hardening as a reinforcement learning (RL) problem and teach RL agents to operate
through the post-breach behavior of widely available penetration testing tools. Over progressive rounds of attack and defense,
agents will explore defensive actions to proactively stop on-going attacks while maintaining operationally relevant workflows.
Environments will execute agents inside instrumented subnets that are deployed to live networks and will simulate defensive
actions that counter APT tools. Agent execution will produce calibrated datasets for progressively improving simulations. The
defensive cyber agents developed under CASTLE will provide the DoD with continual security assessments of critical networks
and real-time response to cyber attacks.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Formulate intelligent cyber agents that learn to identify attacker tools from calibrated datasets and training in realistic network
environments.
- Develop workflow definitions and selection criteria for assessing reinforcement learning based defensive cyber agents.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Develop approaches for intelligent cyber agents to devise defensive measures against cyber attacks.
- Develop defensive and assessment actions and application programming interface for agent execution.
- Develop simulation and execution environment for evaluating cyber agent decision-making and performance.
- Develop a library of APT test cases for cyber agent learning rates, effectiveness, and overhead in realistic DoD network
environments.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
- 8.000 16.000
Volume 1 - 65
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 14 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-03 / CYBER SECURITY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
The FY 2024 increase reflects program scaling up to develop reinforcement learning based defensive cyber agents and the
simulation and execution environment for performance evaluation.
Title: Constellation
Description: The Constellation program, building upon all cyber security technologies developed in this PE and Project, will
develop technologies, capabilities, and prototype systems to enable full spectrum military cyberspace operations to deter, disrupt,
and if necessary, defeat adversary cyber actors to defend the U.S. Constellation is a collaborative effort involving the cyber
operator, acquisition, and developer communities, who will collectively prioritize, select, plan, and approve the development and
demonstration of operational prototype systems based on the results of completed and on-going basic and applied research
efforts. In this way, Constellation will provide a bridge between S&T and acquisition. Once a specific operational prototype has
been selected and approved for development under Constellation, agile development, security, and operations (DevSecOps)
will be used to enable operator feedback to drive development and thereby ensure relevance to highly dynamic cyber missions.
Technologies of interest include but are not limited to artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and data science (DS);
resilient software, networking, and computing systems; data and information assurance; and cyber threat intelligence. The work
achieves high relevance through close coordination with U.S. cyber operators and the use as appropriate DevSecOps and other
collaborative development processes. The work achieves high velocity through streamlined acquisition, assessment, approval,
and deployment processes. The Constellation program is funded from both PE 0602303E, Project IT-03 and PE 0603760E,
Project CCC-05 to facilitate rapid transition of cyber technologies, capabilities, and prototype systems to programs of record and
operations. Of particular interest are technologies developed under the Cyber Hunting at Scale (CHASE), Harnessing Autonomy
for Countering Cyber adversary Systems (HACCS), and Program Analysis for Capability Excellence (PACE) programs and
under development in the Cyber Agents for Security Testing and Learning Environments (CASTLE), and Signature Management
using Operational Knowledge and Environments (SMOKE) programs. Constellation represents a new paradigm for the rapid and
continuous delivery of cyber technologies, capabilities, and prototype systems into operational use for the DoD.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Formulate collaborative processes for prioritization, selection, planning, and approval of efforts to develop technologies,
capabilities, and prototype systems to enable full spectrum military cyberspace operations.
- Collaborate across operator, acquisition, and developer communities to initiate efforts to create operational prototypes for
selected high-priority cyber missions.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Coordinate with operators from Commands and Services to formulate current cyber operations challenges as problems for
which AI/ML/DS-based approaches hold promise.
- 10.000 20.000
Volume 1 - 66
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 15 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-03 / CYBER SECURITY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Coordinate with developers and systems administrators to develop and implement the advanced infrastructure needed for real-
time AI/ML/DS-enabled cyber operations, including the large-scale cyber data and high-performance computing necessary for
training and assessment of adaptive and learning algorithms.
- Coordinate with systems owners to understand the advantages and disadvantages of architectural alternatives to facilitate
accelerated transition to cyber programs of record.
- Coordinate with cyber acquisition offices to initiate pipelined development of cyber operational prototypes through the use
as appropriate of development, security, and operations (DevSecOps) and other collaborative development processes and of
streamlined acquisition, assessment, approval, and deployment processes.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects the expansion of efforts to transition results arising from cyber programs in this PE and Project.
Title: Securing the Software Supply Chain
Description: The Securing the Software Supply Chain program will create software development technologies that provide
visibility into the software components incorporated and the build chain employed in the creation of complex programs that reuse
open and other diverse sources. Software supply chain attacks (e.g., SolarWinds) are growing in sophistication and severity.
These attacks are enabled by the long complex chains of software reuse which hide dependencies and increase the difficulty of
finding and remediating vulnerabilities. The growing dependence on open-source software, where contributor motives may also
be obscure, further exacerbates this problem. In addition, lack of knowledge regarding the build chain by which source code is
compiled, linked, and loaded results in an executable program about which very little is known, and so the problem of opacity
is reinforced at multiple stages in the software development process. The program will develop technologies for automatically
tracking the software bill of materials (SBOM), including for software with uncertain provenance, as an important step towards
mitigating software supply chain risks.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Create methods that identify explicit and implicit software dependencies based on automated program and development
environment understanding.
- Develop automated techniques for collecting or inferring detailed information about the build chain used to create the executable
from the source code.
- Develop techniques for identifying and tracking high-risk open-source activities.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects program initiation.
- - 6.600
Title: Automated Assessment of Vulnerabilities (AAV) - - 6.000
Volume 1 - 67
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 16 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-03 / CYBER SECURITY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Description: The Automated Assessment of Vulnerabilities (AAV) program will create technology to automatically and accurately
assess the vulnerability of software systems with state-of-the-art defenses. At present, techniques to measure the severity of
software vulnerabilities focus on the exploitability of individual vulnerabilities and ignore the possibility of sequencing exploits
into chains, thereby magnifying their severity. To obtain a more accurate assessment, AAV will map vulnerabilities back to the
underlying flaw, identify its pre- and post-conditions, and use program analysis and machine learning to assess the potential for
composing the associated exploits.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Formulate approaches for mapping the symptoms of a vulnerability back to the underlying flaw and for identifying pre- and post-
conditions.
- Develop techniques to accurately assess the severity of a vulnerability chain in software systems with state-of-the-art defenses.
- Develop approaches to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities in business process applications.
- Explore and prioritize demonstrations of severity analysis on vulnerabilities of interest to transition partners.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects program initiation.
Title: Resilient Anonymous Communication for Everyone (RACE)
Description: The Resilient Anonymous Communication for Everyone (RACE) program is developing cryptographic and
communication obfuscation technologies to enable anonymous, attack-resilient, mobile communications within a network
environment. RACE is developing a mobile communication application and distributed systems that provide a secure message-
passing service by combining advances in distributed system tasking with communication protocol encapsulation methods. The
RACE system will maintain confidentiality, integrity, and availability of messaging while preventing large-scale compromise of the
system. RACE security is based on rigorous security arguments or statistical arguments based on realistic simulations, and not on
ad hoc estimates of security.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Improve the efficiency of techniques for computing on encrypted routing information to enable the system to scale an additional
order of magnitude.
- Integrate enhanced components into the secure message-passing system with improved capability to counter a cyber adversary
who has the capability to manipulate communication protocol information and interfere with communication nodes.
- Enhance the testbed and demonstrate the integrated secure message-passing system against a simulated cyber adversary that
has knowledge of and access to the system.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
14.700 8.700 -
Volume 1 - 68
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 17 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-03 / CYBER SECURITY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
Title: Memory Optimization (MemOp)
Description: The Memory Optimization (MemOp) program is developing technology to optimize memory transactions in large
scale computing systems. The demand for computing services is growing within both the U.S. Government and commercial
industry. In response, new technical approaches are being developed to provide massive computation efficiently and cost
effectively. In particular, distributed data centers with high-speed interconnects and customizable hardware, including graphics
processing units (GPU) and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), are being used by service providers to achieve greater
efficiency and improved processing performance. MemOp is exploring new memory architectures that more fully leverage
emerging customizable hardware to deliver computing services reliably and at reduced cost. The more promising MemOp memory
architectures will be implemented and evaluated in hardware and software. The technologies developed in MemOp will provide
enhanced efficiency and improved performance for large scale computing systems.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Optimize integration of memory and accelerated processing pipelines and evaluate improvements on program testbed.
- Harden and transition memory optimization technologies to industry and DoD.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
17.000 7.007 -
Title: Cyber-Hunting at Scale (CHASE)
Description: The Cyber-Hunting at Scale (CHASE) program is developing data-driven tools for real-time cyber threat detection,
characterization, and protection within enterprise-scale networks. U.S. computer networks are continually under attack, but at
present there are few capabilities to efficiently extract and analyze the right data from the right device at the right time for DoD-
scale information networks. For example, analysis of an in-memory exploit requires detailed data from a few devices, while
analysis of a global botnet attack requires summary data from a great many devices. CHASE is developing novel algorithms and
analysis tools to dynamically collect data from across the network, actively hunt for advanced threats that evade routine security
measures, and automatically disseminate protective measures that bolster the collective cyber defense posture.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Integrate threat detection, data retention, and global analysis methods, and harden capabilities for transition to DoD
stakeholders.
- Transition cyber threat detection and protective measure dissemination technologies to DoD stakeholders.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
15.100 6.100 -
Volume 1 - 69
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 18 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-03 / CYBER SECURITY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
Title: Computers and Humans Exploring Software Security (CHESS)
Description: The Computers and Humans Exploring Software Security (CHESS) program is developing technologies to enable
computers and humans to reason collaboratively over software artifacts, such as source code and compiled binaries, with the goal
of finding vulnerabilities more rapidly and accurately than unaided human operators. CHESS envisions a future in which high-
intensity cyber operations are conducted by computer-human teams. CHESS capabilities will be designed for use by humans of
varying skill levels, even those with minimal previous cyber experience or relevant domain knowledge. Achieving the necessary
scale and timelines in vulnerability discovery will require innovative combinations of automated program analysis techniques with
support for mixed-initiative computer-human collaboration. CHESS aims to enable U.S. operational cyber superiority by combining
human-generated insight into the vulnerability discovery process with the speed and scale of computational analysis.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Quantify the degree to which the cyber reasoning techniques enable non-experts in vulnerability discovery to approach expert-
level efficacy.
- Harden an end-to-end, integrated computer-human software reasoning system and transition to the DoD and IC.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
12.400 5.000 -
Title: Searchlight
Description: The Searchlight program is developing technologies to ensure that quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees are met
for distributed applications operating across the Internet. The increasing use of Internet-based distributed applications creates
risks as surges in network use can result in resource shortfalls. Searchlight will develop novel approaches for allocating inherently
limited network resources to optimize the performance of distributed applications. Searchlight techniques and systems aim to
enable organizations to adapt the QoS for their low-priority traffic resulting in improved QoS for their high-priority traffic without
affecting traffic from other Internet users. Searchlight technologies will become increasingly important as 5G systems provide
advanced capabilities for organizations to adapt their QoS guarantees.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Demonstrate an integrated QoS management prototype on relevant use cases and transition to DoD and commercial network
service providers.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
6.300 4.800 -
Volume 1 - 70
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 19 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-03 / CYBER SECURITY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
Title: Active Social Engineering Defense (ASED)
Description: The Active Social Engineering Defense (ASED) program developed technologies to automatically identify, disrupt
and investigate social engineering attacks via bot-mediated communications. Social engineering attacks, such as phishing and
spear-phishing, typically gain user trust via impersonation to induce behaviors or elicit sensitive information that compromise
security of an information system. At present, defending against social engineering attacks falls largely to human users. ASED
prevented social engineering attacks by creating counter-social-engineering bots that act on behalf of users to mediate and
aggregate communications and auto-identify attackers. ASED greatly reduced the effectiveness of adversary social engineering
attacks and improve the security of DoD information systems.
6.600 - -
Title: Cora
Description: The Cora program developed technologies to enable machines to read heterogeneous text-based data sources,
extract key entities and activities, and characterize cyber threats. Large volumes of text-based data contain scattered clues about
the activities of cyber threats. Automated machine reading and analysis capabilities are required due to the extreme rates at which
this text-based data is generated. In addition, the connections between extracted entities and their activities can be very subtle
and, because they are buried in noise, difficult to detect and correlate. The Cora technologies assisted cyber analysts by providing
them with pre-processed cyber leads that otherwise might not be available.
10.740 - -
Title: Hardware Optimization (HOP)
Description: The Hardware Optimization (HOP) program developed hardware optimizations for national security purposes.
Specifically, HOP enabled new national security workloads in high performance microelectronic hardware. This research produced
end-to-end hardware optimization toolkits to enhance hardware designs. These toolkits are comprised of algorithms, digital design
files, documentation, and binaries.
17.100 - -
Title: Harnessing Autonomy for Countering Cyber-adversary Systems (HACCS)
Description: The Harnessing Autonomy for Countering Cyber-adversary Systems (HACCS) program developed safe and
reliable autonomous software agents that can neutralize botnet implants and similar large-scale malware in networked devices.
HACCS developed technologies to (1) identify and characterize botnet-conscripted networks of devices to determine the types
of devices and the software services running on them with sufficient precision to infer the presence of known vulnerabilities; (2)
generate software exploits for a large number of known vulnerabilities that can be used to establish initial presence in each botnet-
conscripted network without disrupting system functionality; and (3) create high-assurance software agents that can autonomously
navigate within botnet-conscripted networks, identify botnet implants, and curtail their ability to operate while minimizing side
9.240 - -
Volume 1 - 71
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 20 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-03 / CYBER SECURITY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
effects to systems and infrastructure. HACCS technologies enable U.S. agencies possessing the appropriate authorities to safely
conduct Internet-scale counter-botnet operations.
Title: Intent-Defined Adaptive Software (IDAS)
Description: The Intent-Defined Adaptive Software (IDAS) program developed technologies to represent the intent of software
and its abstract constraints separately from its concrete instantiation, for the purpose of enabling rapid code synthesis and
continual adaptation. Modern weapons platforms are increasingly dependent on complex software, increasing the risk of system
failures and creating new attack surfaces for adversaries. Software engineers often manage complexity by choosing a particular
option that fulfills the immediate needs of the development effort (e.g., by concretization). IDAS developed techniques for deferring
software concretizations until uncertainties are resolved, either at build time or during run time, for complex systems. IDAS
technology can significantly reduce software development time and maintenance costs, thereby enabling DoD to acquire, sustain,
and improve software-based capabilities more cost-effectively.
6.379 - -
Title: Configuration Security
Description: The Configuration Security program developed technologies to analyze, monitor, and modify the configuration of
composed cyber-physical-human systems to identify system vulnerabilities and minimize the attack surface while maintaining
functionality and performance. Complex cyber-physical systems, such as ships, airplanes, and critical infrastructure, increasingly
make use of multiple commodity information technology components. The manual configuration necessary to enable each
component to interoperate introduces exploitable cyber vulnerabilities, as do the standard operating procedures that system
operators follow. The Configuration Security program developed capabilities to automate the appropriate configuration of such
systems within the operational context, ensure secure configuration settings, and prevent malicious changes to these settings.
6.050 - -
Title: Cyber Assured Systems Engineering (CASE)
Description: The Cyber Assured Systems Engineering (CASE) program developed the design, analysis and verification tools
needed to allow systems engineers to design-in cyber resiliency and manage tradeoffs as they do other quality attributes when
designing complex embedded computing systems. The current state of practice for cyber resilience utilizes penetration testing
after system construction to drive post-design re-engineering. The CASE technical approach formulated cyber resilience as an
explicitly engineered property, similar to other holistic properties such as safety, durability, and reliability now standard in systems
engineering. The challenge of resiliency is that it cannot be established through conventional testing methods. CASE focused
on the following technical areas: techniques to derive resilience-related requirements before system design and construction;
architectural design and analysis tools to design-in the derived resilience requirements while providing feedback to the human
designer to allow for informed tradeoffs between resilience and other system design goals; tools to adapt existing software to
support system-level resilience requirements; and inference engines, satisfiability solvers, and provers scalable to complex
3.000 - -
Volume 1 - 72
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 21 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-03 / CYBER SECURITY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
networked cyber-physical systems. CASE technologies enable the design of cyber-physical systems that robustly execute their
intended function despite the efforts of sophisticated cyber adversaries.
Title: Enhanced Attribution
Description: The Enhanced Attribution program developed technologies to associate malicious cyber actions with individual
adversary operators, and to publicly reveal these actions without compromising sources and methods. The program focused
on new approaches for identifying malicious cyber operators, analyzing their software tools and actions, and confirming this
information with commercial and public sources of data. As the attribution techniques were developed and showed promise, they
provided the basis for new cyber capabilities such as indications and warning of adversary cyber actions. These technologies
were implemented in tools for evaluation by potential transition partners.
3.000 - -
Accomplishments/Planned Programs Subtotals
227.359 183.786 167.459
FY 2022 FY 2023
Congressional Add: AI Cyber Data Analytics (Cyber) - Congressional Add
FY 2022 Accomplishments: - Formulated translation layers between currently siloed binary analysis tools to
accelerate progress and enhance capabilities across binary analysis stacks.
- Formulated development-to-deployment remote attestation capabilities that can be verified and deployed on a
DoD-relevant Zero-Trust Architecture application.
- Explored prototype systems that provide confidentiality, integrity, and availability of messaging to enable
privacy of communication even in hostile settings.
- Extended location-aware privacy capabilities to enhance the operational security of DoD and U.S. Government
personnel outside of the continental U.S.
- Enhanced technologies and integrated in a simulation platform to facilitate evaluation of power grid restoration
capabilities.
15.000 -
Congressional Adds Subtotals
15.000 -
C. Other Program Funding Summary ($ in Millions)
N/A
Remarks
D. Acquisition Strategy
N/A
Volume 1 - 73
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 22 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-04 / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND
HUMAN-MACHINE SYMBIOSIS
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
IT-04: ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE AND HUMAN-
MACHINE SYMBIOSIS
- 194.447 188.234 150.570 - 150.570 157.785 179.165 213.302 226.389 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The Artificial Intelligence and Human-Machine Symbiosis project develops technologies to enable machines to function not only as tools that facilitate human action but
also as trustworthy partners to human operators. Of particular interest are systems that can understand human language, extract information, and reliably categorize
content contained in diverse media; answer questions, reach conclusions, and propose explanations; and learn, reason, and apply knowledge gained through
experience to respond intelligently to new and unforeseen events. Enabling computing systems with such human-like intelligence is now of critical importance because
the tempo of military operations in emerging domains exceeds that at which unaided humans can orient, understand, and act. The technologies developed in this project
will enable warfighters to make better decisions in complex, time-critical, battlefield environments; intelligence analysts to make sense of massive, incomplete, and
contradictory information; software developers and certifiers to design, implement, evaluate, and accredit cyber-physical systems and other complex software-reliant
systems with greater efficiency and confidence; and unmanned systems and semi-autonomous agents to perform critical missions in contested physical and virtual
environments safely and reliably.
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Title: Accelerating Artificial Intelligence (AAI)
Description: The Accelerating Artificial Intelligence (AAI) program seeks to go beyond commercially-driven advances in AI
and to address important national security challenge applications. In particular, this program is focused on improving human-AI
collaborations to mitigate current bottlenecks in DoD's ability to rapidly adapt and deploy new technologies and capabilities. If
successful, research efforts under this program will significantly accelerate the pace of innovation in many important DoD domains
while also reducing the time and cost associated with approval and certification processes needed to transition and deploy new
technologies. One technical challenge to be addressed in this program is the need to assess current developmental, approval,
and certification processes and identify tasks or sub-tasks amenable to greater automation with minimal human intervention.
Other challenges include the need to develop social context aware AI systems and to ensure robustness of AI systems,
particularly in novel and/or unanticipated situations. Approaches to addressing these challenges will leverage recent advances
at the frontiers of AI research in transfer learning, causal reasoning and associated models. AAI application areas include the
following: (1) machine-enabled techniques to efficiently capture, generate, and analyze disparate data sources to accelerate
design and development of new materials and chemistries for DoD specific applications; and (2) knowledge management tools
that can efficiently capture and disseminate an organization's expertise, experience and data; and (3) social context informed
AI approaches to enable reliable and robust forecasting and decision aiding tools for stabilization, deterrence and gray zone
operations.
55.000 47.500 30.365
Volume 1 - 74
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 23 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-04 / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND
HUMAN-MACHINE SYMBIOSIS
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
FY 2023 Plans:
- Evaluate research in methods to improve human operators' ability to innovate with their AI-enabled platforms during off-nominal
scenarios including simulated system failures.
- Develop, test, and refine models of the situational awareness demands imposed by yet-to-be-built autonomous systems.
- Develop, test, and refine design tools for composing whole-system human machine interfaces.
- Continue construction of rapidly reconfigurable human machine interface test environments for highly automated and AI-enabled
platforms.
- Extend efforts to measure and aggregate an individual's preconscious neural and physiological responses into actionable
evidence regarding that individual's beliefs.
- Formulate preliminary methods for converting interview questions into stimuli that evoke preconscious neural and physiological
responses.
- Identify variables that confound the data collection process necessary for aggregating an individual's preconscious response to
stimuli.
- Demonstrate improved computational efficiency of scalable methods to generate accurate statistics at the outputs of machine
learning systems, enabling improved sensor fusion.
- Refine approaches for composing techniques into scalable proof generation and repair capabilities within development platforms
to increase assurance of systems.
- Conduct Legal, Moral, and Ethical (LME) working groups and engagements with industry and university performers to provide
technical, academic, and operation expertise and advise on best practices and DoD ethical AI principles.
- Develop foundational AI science, advance the state of the art in AI engineering, and create human-machine teaming approaches
that support trustworthy AI for mission- and safety-critical domains.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Develop and evaluate methods to improve human operators' ability to innovate with their AI-enabled platforms during off-nominal
scenarios including unanticipated contexts.
- Test and refine models of the situational awareness demands imposed by yet-to-be-built autonomous systems.
- Test and refine design tools for composing whole-system human machine interfaces.
- Refine and mature a rapidly reconfigurable human machine interface test environment for highly automated and AI-enabled
platforms.
- Refine methods for converting interview questions into stimuli that evoke preconscious neural and physiological responses.
- Mitigate variables that confound the data collection process necessary for aggregating an individual's preconscious response to
stimuli.
Volume 1 - 75
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 24 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-04 / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND
HUMAN-MACHINE SYMBIOSIS
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Continue to develop foundational AI science, advance the state of the art in AI engineering, and create human-machine teaming
approaches that support trustworthy AI for mission- and safety-critical domains.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects a shift from development and prototyping to testing.
Title: Learning Introspective Control (LINC)
Description: The Learning Introspective Control (LINC) program is developing machine introspection and learning technologies
to characterize a modified or damaged military platform from its behavior, and update the control law to maintain stability and
control. The current approach to handling platform modification or damage places the burden of recovery and control on the
operator, whether the operator is human or an autonomous controller. In contrast, a platform equipped with LINC technology
would continually compare the real-time behavior of the platform as measured by on-board sensors with a learned model,
determine if the current observed behavior of the platform differs from that model in ways that might compromise stability and
control, and implement an updated control law when required. The LINC capability would aid operators in maintaining effective
control of military platforms that suffer damage in battle or have been modified in the field to address emergent requirements
identified during operations.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Develop control reconstitution algorithms with performance and computational efficiency necessary for complex DoD systems.
- Design and implement a testbed for assessing integrated machine introspection and learning approaches for automated
recovery and control of military platforms that suffer damage in battle or are modified in the field.
- Develop a computational platform to support experiments involving cyber-physical systems and high-priority use cases in
collaboration with Service transition partners.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Demonstrate computational efficiency of control reconstitution algorithms and establish suitability for integration in DoD systems
that have limited spare computational resources.
- Integrate initial machine introspection and learning algorithms on the testbed and make performance measurements to establish
the feasibility of automated recovery and control of military platforms that suffer damage in battle or are modified in the field.
- Perform experiments involving recovery and control of cyber-physical systems and high-priority use cases in collaboration with
Service transition partners.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
12.500 19.000 23.000
Volume 1 - 76
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 25 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-04 / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND
HUMAN-MACHINE SYMBIOSIS
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
The FY 2024 increase reflects ramping up the development of learning introspective control techniques and implementation in a
demonstration platform, and initiation of experiments in collaboration with Service transition partners.
Title: Symbiotic Design
Description: The Symbiotic Design program is developing artificial intelligence-based approaches to augment human teams
in the design of cyber-physical systems (CPS), and thereby significantly reduce time to deployment and improve the quality
of deployed systems. The current generation of DoD systems and platforms integrate cyber and physical subsystems, but the
capability of the engineering teams has not scaled with the enormous complexity of modern CPS. Engineering organizations
require large teams of engineers that collectively possess the necessary domain knowledge (of component technologies, theories,
and tools), but the prolonged timelines of the development process for modern CPS hinders DoD's ability to counter emerging
threats. The Symbiotic Design program will address this challenge by transforming the human-focused, model-based design flows
used today into a symbiotic process of collaborative analysis by humans and continuously-learning artificial intelligence (AI)-based
co-designers. The program will create technologies essential for AI co-design: design space construction, design composition, and
design space exploration. The program will demonstrate the approach at realistic scales by a sequence of CPS design challenges
of increasing complexity, and quantify the results with respect to development time, system performance, quality, and innovation
metrics.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Develop multi-domain inferencing techniques to automate multi-domain reasoning and model learning.
- Scale up techniques for exploration of high-dimensional, multi-domain, combinatorial, and parametric design spaces.
- Conduct design hackathons to study productivity of designers and quality of design using conventional engineering tools in
comparison to when an AI co-designer and symbiotic design technologies are used.
- Perform demonstration and evaluation of symbiotic design technologies through applications to sub-systems and systems of
interest to the DoD.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Develop new mathematical techniques to address topological and 3D placement challenges in complex cyber physical systems
design.
- Develop integrated toolchains that construct design spaces for a given (partial or complete) design problem and seed designs;
automatically compose and evaluate a design point; and explore high-dimensional, multi-domain combinatorial design spaces.
- Conduct design hackathons to study the performance and originality of the cyber-physical systems designed using the integrated
symbiotic design technologies and toolchains.
- Demonstrate and evaluate symbiotic design technologies and integrated toolchains for complex systems of interest to the DoD.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
28.100 24.500 22.500
Volume 1 - 77
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 26 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-04 / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND
HUMAN-MACHINE SYMBIOSIS
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
The FY 2024 decrease reflects ramping down of development and implementation of symbiotic design techniques and focus
shifting to evaluation of technologies and integrated toolchains on complex systems of interest to the DoD.
Title: Knowledge-directed Artificial Intelligence Reasoning Over Schemas (KAIROS)
Description: The Knowledge-directed Artificial Intelligence (AI) Reasoning Over Schemas (KAIROS) program is developing AI
and machine learning technologies to aid a human operator in understanding complex sequences of events in the world. For the
purposes of KAIROS, an event is an occurrence that results in an observable and recognizable change in either the physical world
or human activity. Events of particular interest to KAIROS are those that create changes that have significant impact on national
or homeland security. The KAIROS program will develop automated systems that codify existing event-representation schemas
and, when needed, create and codify new schemas to bring structure to complex event sequences and present these structured
representations to operators. Given multimedia inputs, operators will use KAIROS technologies to identify subsidiary event
elements, determine their temporal order, recognize complex event sequences, and link disparate events. KAIROS technologies
aim to enable analysts and warfighters to understand unfolding events rapidly and accurately.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Develop the means to interpolate events of interest not reported in multiple sources that occur within complex sequences of
events.
- Develop the means to predict future events from a sequence of complex events as it is unfolding.
- Evaluate the event detection and prediction capabilities with DoD and Intelligence Community (IC) users on problems related to
stabilization in regional conflicts.
- Optimize the system in response to operational partner assessments on complex real-world event sequences and initiate
transition of the technology.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Develop the means to compute and display sequential information about the constituent events in a complex event and specify
when order is or is not important in the sequence.
- Design and run an evaluation with potential users to determine the effectiveness of the event schema-based platform in
comparison with existing tools.
- Prepare an end-to-end analytic platform as well as a schema creation platform for transition partners.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects ramping down of development of techniques for learning complex event schemas and event
discovery and prediction, and focus shifting to evaluation of techniques and refinements to facilitate transition.
22.000 25.300 13.000
Title: Automated Rapid Certification Of Software (ARCOS) 25.000 22.000 12.000
Volume 1 - 78
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 27 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-04 / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND
HUMAN-MACHINE SYMBIOSIS
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Description: The Automated Rapid Certification Of Software (ARCOS) program is developing technologies that automate the
capture and evaluation of software assurance evidence to enable certifiers to assess system risks earlier in the process and to
commit to engineering decisions more rapidly and safely. Current software certification practices do not scale with the extent,
complexity, and interconnection of software being developed by the DoD, so certification is becoming a bottleneck to new system
deployment. ARCOS technologies address DoD software system certification time and cost. ARCOS technology will automatically
and interactively generate strong assurance arguments that incorporate supporting evidence for certification criteria. ARCOS will
also develop techniques to compose assurance arguments for pre-evaluated components into consolidated assurance arguments
for new systems incorporating those components.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Expand assurance case generation to address assurance criteria in multiple domains such as safety and security.
- Develop a mechanism to track the provenance of assurance evidence used in assurance case arguments.
- Demonstrate an approach to assurance-driven software development that generates evidence appropriate for the high
confidence software assurance required for military systems.
- Demonstrate automated generation of assurance arguments for a representative complex military system.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Demonstrate automated assurance case generation and composition to enable simultaneous evaluation of assurance criteria in
multiple domains such as safety and security.
- Demonstrate assurance-driven software development for a representative complex military system that requires high confidence
software assurance.
- Integrate and harden technologies for automated generation of assurance arguments for use by potential transition partners.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects ramping down of development of assurance generation techniques and focus shifting to
demonstration, hardening, and transition of the software assurance technology.
Title: Assured Autonomy
Description: The Assured Autonomy program is developing rigorous design and analysis technologies for continual assurance of
learning-enabled autonomous systems to enhance system safety in uncertain environments. Currently, the state of the art for test,
evaluation, verification, and validation is only applicable to non-learning systems operating in well-characterized environments.
As a result, autonomous systems enabled by machine learning (e.g., deep neural nets for perception, reinforcement learning for
control policies, and online model learning) lack rigorous safety assurance. Assured Autonomy is developing new techniques
for modeling and system design, formal verification, simulation-based testing, and safety-assured learning to provide continual
assurance of learning-enabled autonomous systems. The technologies being developed in Assured Autonomy will enable
13.000 9.400 5.005
Volume 1 - 79
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 28 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-04 / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND
HUMAN-MACHINE SYMBIOSIS
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
the DoD to more rapidly and efficiently deploy learning-enabled autonomous systems that can be trusted to operate safely in
uncertain environments.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Develop integrated toolchains for end-to-end development and assurance of learning-enabled systems.
- Develop a framework for continuous assurance and provenance of evidentiary artifacts.
- Demonstrate integrated tools on multiple autonomous systems of interest to DoD.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Transition integrated toolchain and assurance tools to DoD partners.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects a shift from assurance toolchain integration and demonstration to transition of an integrated
toolchain to DoD partners.
Title: Automating Scientific Knowledge Extraction and Modeling (ASKEM)
Description: The Automating Scientific Knowledge Extraction and Modeling (ASKEM) program is developing technologies and
tools for the agile creation, sustainment, and enhancement of complex models and simulators to enable knowledge extraction
and data-informed decision making in diverse scientific domains and military missions. Current modeling and simulation
pipelines do not maintain the relevant inputs, assumptions, and modeling choices made during development, while rapidly
changing knowledge, semantically-opaque models, and black-box simulators make pipelined development nearly impossible.
ASKEM enables a new paradigm for scientific modeling analogous to the transition in software development from the lengthy
waterfall model to agile, continual Development and Operations (DevOps). ASKEM modeling automation tools 1) extract model
components from documents and code while abstracting implementation details like math framework, language, and platform;
2) compose distinct model and simulator components; and 3) integrate all elements and processes in an extensible workbench
that addresses the entire modeling and simulation lifecycle. ASKEM tools enable experts to maintain, reuse, and adapt large
collections of heterogeneous data, knowledge, and models with traceability across knowledge sources, model assumptions, and
model fitness and thereby bring agile, pipelined development to modeling and simulation. ASKEM technologies will be applied to
multiple use cases to drive scalability and generality.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Develop formal representations and techniques for machine-assisted modeling that support automated composition and
decomposition for model creation, sustainment, and customization.
- Develop tools for machine-assisted simulator design and construction to enable the rapid composition of models, frameworks,
and solvers that are problem appropriate.
- 19.200 23.700
Volume 1 - 80
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 29 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-04 / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND
HUMAN-MACHINE SYMBIOSIS
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Develop tools for continual machine-assisted validation of models, including construction of fitness-for-purpose simulators.
- Initiate development of an extensible workbench that spans the entire modeling and simulation lifecycle to facilitate technology
evaluation on diverse use cases in collaboration with transition partners.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Establish baselines and measure technical component performance for accuracy, timeliness, maintainability, and scalability in
selected evaluation domains.
- Implement and test all interfaces and components, develop initial human-machine interface, integrate workbench prototype, and
validate technical component integration on papers-to-prediction tasks.
- Evaluate utility of the integrated system by comparing performance of modelers working with and without the tools on multiple
tasks.
- Demonstrate and initiate evaluation of the workbench across the entire modeling and simulation lifecycle against diverse use
cases in collaboration with transition partners.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects continued development of model construction and assembly technologies and scaling up of
implementation of technologies in an integrated workbench and evaluation in collaboration with transition partners.
Title: Assured Neuro Symbolic Learning and Reasoning (ANSR)
Description: The Assured Neuro Symbolic Learning and Reasoning (ANSR) program, building on results derived in the
Engineering Artificial Intelligence Systems Implementations (EAISI) program (PE 0602303E, Project IT-04), develops new hybrid
AI algorithms that deeply integrate symbolic reasoning with data driven learning to create trustworthy AI-based systems. Here,
an AI based system is considered trustworthy if it is: (a) robust to domain informed and adversarial perturbations, (b) supported
by an assurance framework that creates and analyzes heterogenous evidence towards safety and risk assessments, and (c)
predictable with respect to some specification and model of fitness. ANSR develops hybrid AI algorithms for which it is possible
to develop evidence-based techniques that support confident assurance judgments. The key idea is to interleave symbolic and
neural representations in hybrid AI algorithms that are capable of acquiring symbolic knowledge through learning and performing
symbolic reasoning at scale to deliver robust inference, generalize to new situations, and provide evidence for assurance and
trust. ANSR technologies will be demonstrated and evaluated on DoD use cases such as autonomy where trustworthiness is
essential.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Formulate approaches to extract symbolic knowledge from neural network representations.
- Initiate development of a pipeline that abstracts neuro symbolic algorithms into formally analyzable representations and
evaluates them with respect to a set of mission dependent specifications.
- 11.000 14.000
Volume 1 - 81
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 30 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-04 / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND
HUMAN-MACHINE SYMBIOSIS
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Develop initial use cases and an architecture for engineering and demonstrating mission relevant applications of hybrid AI
algorithms.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Develop and model new hybrid AI algorithms and architectures that deeply integrate symbolic reasoning with data driven
machine learning.
- Develop an assurance framework and methods for deriving and integrating evidence of correctness and adversarial scenarios
for assessing the robustness of hybrid AI algorithms.
- Perform initial demonstration and evaluation of hybrid AI technologies and their composition in systems through use cases of
interest to the DoD.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects ramping up of development of techniques that integrate symbolic reasoning with data-driven
machine learning and initiation of evaluation on high priority use cases of interest to the DoD.
Title: Learning Autonomy in Synthetic Environments (LASE)
Description: The Learning Autonomy in Synthetic Environments (LASE) program will develop simulation-to-simulation and
simulation-to-real neuro-symbolic transfer learning techniques that enable more fully unmanned operations by autonomous
systems. The autonomy levels of unmanned systems of today are limited because it is assumed that the modeling and simulation
(M&S) training environment captures all the relevant phenomena at a high fidelity, when in reality it does not account for the data
domain shift common when translating simulation outcomes from the M&S environment to the real world. The LASE approach
will integrate symbolic structures (to capture discrete symbolic phenomena like mission objectives) and neural structures (to
generalize and encode high-dimensional phenomena like sensor signals, imagery, etc.) to more realistically transfer learned
autonomy from a M&S environment. Furthermore, since it is often difficult to choose an appropriate M&S training environment,
LASE will also explore the development of a neuro-symbolic digital twin for use in training. LASE transfer of M&S-based learning
will enable higher levels of autonomy for systems that operate in environments where command, control, and communications can
be restricted or denied.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Identify universal features of neural perception and symbolic reasoning for sequential decision-making tasks in reinforcement
learning.
- Formulate approaches for integrating symbolic and neural structures for autonomous systems with higher levels of autonomy.
- Develop use cases and a testbed for evaluating performance in terms of time-to-threshold and long-run performance of the
neuro-symbolic transfer learning solutions when compared to other transfer learning baselines.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
- - 7.000
Volume 1 - 82
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 31 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-04 / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND
HUMAN-MACHINE SYMBIOSIS
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
The FY 2024 increase reflects program initiation.
Title: Active Interpretation of Disparate Alternatives (AIDA)
Description: The Active Interpretation of Disparate Alternatives (AIDA) program is developing a multi-hypothesis semantic engine
that generates alternative interpretations of events, situations, and trends from a variety of unstructured sources where there
are noisy, conflicting, and potentially deceptive data. At present, information from each medium is often analyzed independently,
without the context provided by information from other media, with only informal comparison among competing hypotheses. The
consequence of this can be inadequate interpretations, because alternatives are eliminated due to lack of evidence even in the
absence of contradictory evidence. AIDA seeks to develop and demonstrate technology to automatically map information derived
from diverse media into a common semantic representation, aggregate information, resolve ambiguities, discover conflicting
information, and generate and explore multiple interpretations of events, situations, and trends. AIDA aims to provide decision
makers a capability to understand alternative explanations for available information and to make contingency plans accordingly.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Enhance the techniques for detecting important changes in otherwise similar documents to achieve a level of precision and recall
necessary to enable discovery and analysis of different hypotheses.
- Collaborate with transition partners to establish the utility of the technology and tailor the platform for transition partner
applications.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
12.800 10.334 -
Title: Counter Adversarial Artificial Intelligence
Description: The Counter Adversarial Artificial Intelligence program enhanced the capability to detect, deflect, and diminish the
effects of adversarial attacks on AI-based systems. Defense systems increasingly incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities
such as machine learning and automated reasoning. These AI-enabled systems are typically engineered and optimized for
environments where adversary systems are either static or strictly limited in terms of adaptive behaviors. Engagements between
sophisticated AI-enabled systems are likely to become increasingly common going forward. Maintaining AI-superiority for the U.S.
will require systems with higher levels of capability. Specific capabilities developed include recognizing when an adversary system
is AI-enabled, identifying and modeling adversary AI capabilities based on empirical data, and creating counter-AI strategies
including techniques to render adversary AI capabilities ineffective and/or deleterious.
6.000 - -
Title: Engineering Artificial Intelligence Systems Implementations (EAISI)
Description: The Engineering Artificial Intelligence Systems Implementations (EAISI) program created technologies to support
the development of assured systems that include AI and machine learning (ML) capabilities. Modern AI-dependent systems may
5.047 - -
Volume 1 - 83
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 32 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-04 / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND
HUMAN-MACHINE SYMBIOSIS
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
include multiple AI components, drawing on a diverse set of AI-related techniques, ranging from ML to knowledge representation,
search, planning, game theory, and optimization. Current methods for development of such systems remains primarily based
on trial-and-error designs, with limited abstractions, architectures, and patterns. These developments can be costly, risky, and
demanding of very high levels of expertise. To address this, EAISI developed hybrid, neuro symbolic architectures that facilitate
the analysis and synthesis of complex systems that must rely on AI-based components.
Title: Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI)
Description: The Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) program developed a new generation of machine learning techniques
that are able to explain their rationale, characterize their strengths and weaknesses, and convey an understanding of how they will
behave in the future. AI is a critical enabler for U.S. military systems that will perform increasingly complex and sensitive missions.
However, in order for developers, users, and senior leaders to feel confident enough to deploy and use AI-enabled systems,
these systems must be able to explain their rationale, and their recommendations, decisions, and actions must be delivered in
a way that military users can understand and trust. Today, most machine learning systems provide no explanations, or provide
explanations that are at the wrong level of abstraction, not meaningful to a human user, or inconsistent with the full range of
behaviors of the AI system. XAI developed the tools necessary to build explainable AI systems, specifically with: (1) new machine
learning techniques that produce human-interpretable models and (2) user interfaces that generate explanations from those
models that are meaningful to end-users, using natural language, saliency maps, and other representations. XAI implementations
were developed and demonstrated in next-generation data analytics and autonomous systems.
5.000 - -
Accomplishments/Planned Programs Subtotals
184.447 188.234 150.570
FY 2022 FY 2023
Congressional Add: AI Cyber Data Analytics (AI) - Congressional Add
FY 2022 Accomplishments: - Developed techniques to extract knowledge from structured data as part of an
end-to-end automated knowledge extraction and modeling process.
- Developed techniques for tracking the provenance of evidentiary artifacts to support model-based engineering
and continuous assurance of high-confidence software systems.
- Developed evidence curation tools to enable secure software systems engineering and evidence-based
assurance judgments.
- Augmented AI-based design tools to enhance applicability to unmanned underwater vehicles and air mobility
vehicles.
10.000 -
Volume 1 - 84
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602303E: INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 33 of 33 R-1 Line #15
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602303E / INFORMATION & COMM
UNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
IT-04 / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND
HUMAN-MACHINE SYMBIOSIS
FY 2022 FY 2023
- Enhanced user interfaces to facilitate event schema curation and provide feedback for event schema
recognition systems.
Congressional Adds Subtotals
10.000 -
C. Other Program Funding Summary ($ in Millions)
N/A
Remarks
D. Acquisition Strategy
N/A
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UNCLASSIFIED
Volume 1 - 86
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602383E: BIOLOGICAL WARFARE DEFENSE
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 1 of 2 R-1 Line #16
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602383E / BIOLOGICAL WARFARE DEFENSE
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
Total Program Element
- 28.073 23.059 0.000 - 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 - -
BW-01: BIOLOGICAL
WARFARE DEFENSE
- 28.073 23.059 0.000 - 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The Biological Warfare Defense project is budgeted in the Applied Research budget activity because its focus is on the underlying technologies associated with the
detection, prevention, treatment and remediation of biological, chemical, and radionuclide threats.
Efforts to counter existing and emerging biological, chemical and radiological threats include countermeasures to stop the pathophysiologic processes that occur as
a consequence of an attack, collection of environmental trace constituents to support chemical mapping, tactical and strategic biological, chemical, and radiological
sensors, and integrated defense systems.
B. Program Change Summary ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 Base FY 2024 OCO FY 2024 Total
Previous President's Budget 31.421 23.059 10.536 - 10.536
Current President's Budget 28.073 23.059 0.000 - 0.000
Total Adjustments -3.348 0.000 -10.536 - -10.536
• Congressional General Reductions 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Directed Reductions 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Rescissions 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Adds 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Directed Transfers 0.000 0.000
• Reprogrammings -2.527 0.000
• SBIR/STTR Transfer -0.821 0.000
• TotalOtherAdjustments - - -10.536 - -10.536
Change Summary Explanation
FY 2022: Decrease reflects SBIR/STTR transfer and reprogrammings.
FY 2023: N/A
FY 2024: Decrease reflects completion of the Defense Against Mass Terror Threats program in FY 2023.
C. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Title: Defense Against Mass Terror Threats 28.073 23.059 -
Volume 1 - 87
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602383E: BIOLOGICAL WARFARE DEFENSE
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 2 of 2 R-1 Line #16
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602383E / BIOLOGICAL WARFARE DEFENSE
C. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Description: The objective of the Defense Against Mass Terror Threats program is to identify and develop technologies that have
the potential to significantly improve the United States' ability to reduce the risk of mass casualties in the wake of a Weapons
of Mass Terror (WMT) attack. Challenges in reducing U.S. vulnerability to these attacks include developing new sensors and
systems that afford early warning and opportunities to interdict these threats before they can be employed in urban areas and
other population centers. A major goal of this program is to develop new sensors and sensing networks that can economically and
reliably provide these wide-area monitoring capabilities for WMT threat signatures.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Complete spiral development of chemical and biological sensors validated in independent government testing.
- Conclude utility assessment of worn physiological sensors using developments associated with infectious disease detection and
reporting, coupled with integrated algorithms.
- Finalize suite of augmented, commercial-off-the-shelf chemical and biological sensors that will compose a system including fully
scaled, integrated sensors and operationalized algorithms.
- Complete spiral development of a network backbone and operating system supporting sensor, contextual and transactional data
ingestion with a focus operating within stakeholder system environments.
- Mature end-to-end beta build of the network, including data model, pipeline, and analytics engine capable of ingestion
and automated analytics of heterogeneous sensor data, with contextual and law enforcement transactional data focusing on
incorporating law enforcement feedback.
- Present system concept of operations to local municipality and Federal Government partners to outline how developed
capabilities can support relevant interdiction and response operations.
- Demonstrate system in large-scale field trials (>10 square kilometers) with objective metrics or better.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY2024 decrease reflects program completion.
Accomplishments/Planned Programs Subtotals
28.073 23.059 -
D. Other Program Funding Summary ($ in Millions)
N/A
Remarks
E. Acquisition Strategy
N/A
Volume 1 - 88
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 1 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
Total Program Element
- 204.665 206.883 234.549 - 234.549 181.779 185.446 197.770 196.520 - -
TT-03: NAVAL WARFARE
TECHNOLOGY
- 26.555 22.652 7.759 - 7.759 9.937 8.270 7.792 7.591 - -
TT-04: ADVANCED LAND
SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY
- 57.163 65.157 60.481 - 60.481 14.191 15.491 13.691 12.791 - -
TT-07: AERONAUTICS AND
SPACE TECHNOLOGY
- 34.662 31.572 74.675 - 74.675 65.516 64.585 61.395 61.245 - -
TT-13: INFORMATION
ANALYTICS TECHNOLOGY
- 86.285 87.502 91.634 - 91.634 92.135 97.100 114.892 114.893 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The efforts described in this Program Element (PE) address the Applied Research associated with the Tactical Technology Program that supports the advancement
of concepts and technologies to enhance the next generation of tactical systems. This PE funds a number of projects in the areas of Naval Warfare, Advanced Land
Systems, Aeronautics and Space Technology and Information Analytics Technology. This PE also supports innovation and robust transition planning in the technology
cycle by working with entrepreneurs to increase the likelihood that DARPA-funded technologies take root in the U.S. and provide new capabilities for national defense.
The Naval Warfare Technology project develops advanced technologies for application to a broad range of naval requirements. Enabling and novel technologies include
concepts for expanding the envelope of operational naval capabilities to include the entire sea column such as improved situational awareness over large maritime
environments, ship self-defense techniques, novel underwater propulsion modalities, high speed underwater vessels, improved techniques for underwater object
detection and discrimination, long endurance unmanned surface vehicles, methods and techniques for servicing assets throughout the sea column, and high bandwidth
communications. This project will also examine methods and architectures for distributing maritime operations to enable a more agile, survivable, and cost-effective fleet.
The Advanced Land Systems Technology project is developing technologies for enhancing U.S. military effectiveness and survivability in operations ranging from
traditional threats to military operations against irregular forces that can employ disruptive or catastrophic capabilities, or disrupt stabilization operations, including
competing in undergoverned spaces. Programs in this project will break the relative symmetry of land combat to give U.S. forces a decided advantage in the current
and future ground battlefield. The emphasis is on developing affordable technologies that reduce reliance on consolidated forward-operating bases and required lines
of communication, and provide small units and individual warfighters with hyper-mobility and hyper-lethality. This project will develop methods and technologies to
expand the maneuver trade space to include the vertical dimension, including subterranean environments, as well as undergoverned spaces. It will leverage advances in
artificial intelligence to enable integrated manned-unmanned operations and decrease warfighter exposure through the use of autonomous agents.
Aeronautics and Space Technology efforts will address high payoff opportunities that dramatically reduce costs associated with advanced aeronautical and space
systems and/or provide revolutionary new system capabilities for satisfying current and projected military mission requirements. This includes advanced technology
Volume 1 - 89
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 2 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
studies of revolutionary propulsion, vehicle, and launch concepts, sophisticated fabrication methods, and examination of novel materials and enabling technologies for
aeronautics and space system applications. Studies that also fundamentally change the calculus of battle including consideration of a mix of assets, platforms that are
potentially disposable or with limited lifespans, and autonomous integration of space and air platforms in the tactical battlespace are included.
The Information Analytics Technology project develops technology for analyzing data and information arising from: 1) intelligence networks; 2) open sources, social
and broadcast media, and other external sources; 3) sensors and signal/image processors; and 4) collection platforms and weapon systems. Technical challenges
include processing huge volumes of diverse, incomplete, and uncertain data in tactically-relevant timeframes, and countering the information operations of sophisticated
adversaries who seek to deceive, degrade, deny, and disrupt the U.S. information enterprise. Benefits sought include a deeper understanding of the evolving operational
environment tailored to the needs of commanders at every echelon; an enhanced capability to plan, monitor, and control diverse military operations ranging from
stabilization and information operations to combat engagements; and increased efficiency of core military functions such as national and homeland security, warfighter
health and readiness, and defense support of law enforcement and civil authorities.
B. Program Change Summary ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 Base FY 2024 OCO FY 2024 Total
Previous President's Budget 207.515 221.883 262.105 - 262.105
Current President's Budget 204.665 206.883 234.549 - 234.549
Total Adjustments -2.850 -15.000 -27.556 - -27.556
• Congressional General Reductions 0.000 -15.000
• Congressional Directed Reductions 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Rescissions 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Adds 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Directed Transfers 0.000 0.000
• Reprogrammings 4.691 0.000
• SBIR/STTR Transfer -7.541 0.000
• TotalOtherAdjustments - - -27.556 - -27.556
Congressional Add Details ($ in Millions, and Includes General Reductions)
FY 2022 FY 2023
Project: TT-13: INFORMATION ANALYTICS TECHNOLOGY
Congressional Add: AI Cyber Data Analytics (Data) - Congressional Add
15.000 -
Congressional Add Subtotals for Project: TT-13
15.000 -
Congressional Add Totals for all Projects
15.000 -
Change Summary Explanation
FY 2022: Decrease reflects SBIR/STTR transfer offset by reprogrammings.
FY 2023: Decrease reflects a Congressional reduction.
Volume 1 - 90
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 3 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
FY 2024: Decrease reflects completion of the Adapting Cross-domain Kill-Webs (ACK), Data-Driven Discovery of Models (D3M), Urban Reconnaissance through
Supervised Autonomy (URSA), and Multi-Azimuth Defense Fast Intercept Round Engagement System (MAD-FIRES) programs in FY 2023, and a shift from
development and testing to demonstration and evaluation activities in the Semantic Forensics (SemaFor), Influence Campaign Awareness and Sensemaking
(INCAS) and Computational Cultural Understanding (CCU) programs.
Volume 1 - 91
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 4 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-03 / NAVAL WARFARE TECHNOLOGY
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
TT-03: NAVAL WARFARE
TECHNOLOGY
- 26.555 22.652 7.759 - 7.759 9.937 8.270 7.792 7.591 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The Naval Warfare Technology project develops advanced technologies for application to a broad range of naval requirements. Enabling and novel technologies include
concepts for expanding the envelope of operational naval capabilities to include the entire sea column such as improved situational awareness over large maritime
environments, ship self-defense techniques, novel underwater propulsion modalities, high speed underwater vessels, improved techniques for underwater object
detection and discrimination, long endurance unmanned surface vehicles, methods and techniques for servicing assets throughout the sea column, and high bandwidth
communications. This project will also examine methods and architectures for distributing maritime operations to enable a more agile, survivable, and cost-effective
fleet.
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Title: Advanced Maritime Defense Technologies Concepts*
Description: *Formerly Maritime Defense
The Advanced Maritime Defense Technologies Concepts program will explore novel technologies and concepts of operations
to mature capabilities that extend freedom of access, operations, and homeland defense in all parts of the maritime domain,
including waterways, arctic areas, and the seabed. The program will investigate and mature technologies necessary for
unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) and unmanned surface vessel (USV) concepts for defense against large volumes of
low-cost expendable platforms, including compressing the detect-to-engage sequence by exploiting localized networked
sensors to rapidly detect, identify, and neutralize threats. Enabling technologies for advanced undersea systems, including a
revolutionary propulsion concept, and novel approaches for maritime platform and fixed location self-defense will be investigated.
Novel technologies and concepts required for arctic and seabed operations, such as distributed sensing, navigation, and
communications architectures, as well as including new technologies to enable long duration maritime platforms will also be
investigated. Finally, future concepts, approaches, and techniques will be identified to enable contested environment operations
utilizing unmanned maritime platforms.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Complete studies of novel underwater sensor systems and extended range maritime platforms.
- Assess autonomous maritime platform integration with advanced payload capabilities.
- Evaluate novel technologies and concepts for arctic operations.
- Evaluate Advanced Propulsor, Experimental (APEX) systems for underwater vehicles.
FY 2024 Plans:
8.902 8.013 7.759
Volume 1 - 92
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 5 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-03 / NAVAL WARFARE TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Finalize conceptual evaluation of APEX for underwater vehicles.
- Support advancement in cross-domain transitions for vehicles and weapon systems.
- Initiate advanced capability and behavior development for UUV/USV operation in contested environment.
- Evaluate architectures and technologies for sensors and defensive systems for fixed locations.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects minor program repricing.
Title: Multi-Azimuth Defense Fast Intercept Round Engagement System (MAD-FIRES)
Description: The Multi-Azimuth Defense Fast Intercept Round Engagement System (MAD-FIRES) program will develop a
point defense system against today's most stressing threats by developing a highly maneuverable, medium caliber, guided
projectile, fire sequencing and control system capable of neutralizing large threat raids of high speed, highly maneuverable
targets. Leveraging recent advancements in gun hardening, miniaturization of guided munition components, and long-range
sensors, MAD-FIRES advances fire control technologies, medium caliber gun technologies, and guided projectile technologies
enabling the multiple, simultaneous target, kinetic engagement mission at greatly reduced costs. MAD-FIRES will achieve lethality
overmatch through accuracy rather than size, thus expanding the role of smaller combat platforms into missions where they have
been traditionally outgunned. MAD-FIRES, sized as a medium caliber system, enhances flexibility for installment as a new ship
self-defense system. This program is also funded in PE 0603766E, Project NET-02.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Commence subsystems development, integration and testing.
- Mature critical technologies to enable future surrogate threat engagement demonstrations.
- Update Modeling, Simulation and Analysis (MS&A) toolset and perform gun-fired testing to validate MS&A tools.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
17.653 14.639 -
Accomplishments/Planned Programs Subtotals
26.555 22.652 7.759
C. Other Program Funding Summary ($ in Millions)
N/A
Remarks
D. Acquisition Strategy
N/A
Volume 1 - 93
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 6 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-04 / ADVANCED LAND SYSTEMS
TECHNOLOGY
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
TT-04: ADVANCED LAND
SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY
- 57.163 65.157 60.481 - 60.481 14.191 15.491 13.691 12.791 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The Advanced Land Systems Technology project is developing technologies for enhancing U.S. military effectiveness and survivability in operations ranging from
traditional threats to military operations against irregular forces that can employ disruptive or catastrophic capabilities, or disrupt stabilization operations, including
competing in undergoverned spaces. Programs in this project will break the relative symmetry of land combat to give U.S. forces a decided advantage in the current
and future ground battlefield. The emphasis is on developing affordable technologies that reduce reliance on consolidated forward-operating bases and required lines
of communication, and provide small units and individual warfighters with hyper-mobility and hyper-lethality. This project will develop methods and technologies to
expand the maneuver trade space to include the vertical dimension, including subterranean environments, as well as undergoverned spaces. It will leverage advances
in artificial intelligence to enable integrated manned-unmanned operations and decrease warfighter exposure through the use of autonomous agents.
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Title: Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency (RACER)
Description: Multi-domain operations (MDO) present complex and challenging environments to ground combat platforms. Ground
combat platforms must operate in a more distributed manner in these environments to gain a sustained tactical advantage and
enhance warfighter survivability. The Army intends to deploy autonomous robotic combat vehicles and optionally manned fighting
vehicles to accomplish this objective. In order to meet the demands of an MDO environment, significant advances in perception,
planning, and control algorithms are required to autonomously maneuver faster and more resiliently in complex and novel off-road
situations. Maneuver environments are characterized by three-dimensional surfaces of highly compliant soils and vegetation,
hundreds of positive and negative obstacle classes, no defined road networks or driving rules, and where use of terrain for
survivability is critical. In order to achieve operationally relevant speeds and resilience to novel situations on the battlefield, while
simultaneously reducing the soldier's cognitive and communications burden and increasing battle space awareness, Robotic
Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency (RACER) will develop and demonstrate game-changing autonomous ground
combat vehicle mobility using a combination of simulation and advanced platforms. RACER will deliver autonomy algorithms using
the latest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine-learning techniques, a code repository, an off-road simulation environment
tailored for military off-road autonomy development, tactical route planning methods, and field-demonstrated off-road autonomous
capabilities. The culmination of the RACER program will demonstrate fully autonomous maneuver on a military Unmanned
Ground Vehicle (UGV) in a variety of militarily relevant environments.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Continue Government-hosted field experiments in increasingly complex terrain and obstacle classes.
34.703 47.807 49.706
Volume 1 - 94
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 7 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-04 / ADVANCED LAND SYSTEMS
TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Initiate development of tactically relevant routes for small-scale demonstration platforms using initial tactics versus an opposing
force.
- Deliver a simulation environment compared against real-world system performance and environments.
- Deliver autonomy algorithm modules demonstrated in the real-world and compared against a simulation environment.
- Finalize large-scale demonstration platform (combat vehicle scale) development and testing.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Continue Government-hosted field experiments in increasingly complex terrain and obstacle classes with combat vehicle scale
autonomous system.
- Conduct alternative simulation environments resiliency testing of autonomy development.
- Test tactically relevant route planner against simulated adversary force.
- Curation of autonomy data sets for use by service stakeholders.
- Conduct final capstone Government-hosted field experiments with large-scale platform (combat vehicle scale) in environments
that contain relevant complexity and obstacle classes.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects shift from development and testing to multiple field experiments culminating in an integrated
demonstration of autonomy algorithms on a combat-scale surrogate vehicle.
Title: Advanced Ground Technologies Concepts
Description: The Advanced Ground Technologies Concepts program aims to surmount key challenges associated with redefining
access and delivery of effects to every aspect of the ground domain by using targeted investments that explore the feasibility
of novel technical solutions, force capabilities and new concepts of operations. In particular, program investments encompass
technologies that promise breakthroughs in enabling actionable situational awareness across diverse environments, Artificial
Intelligence (AI) enabled autonomy for integration of manned-unmanned ground force operations; intelligent ground mobility
systems; advanced military robotic systems; technologies expanding the effective ranges of surface-to-surface precision fires
and technologies that expand the combined arms maneuver trade space to include all aspects of the urban and extra-urban
environment as well as exploiting natural and man-made subterranean environments.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Mature conceptual design for technologies that enhance detection and tracking of large land targets in denied areas.
- Mature framework for enhancing manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) operations and develop demonstration plans to field the
framework.
- Mature approaches for testing tactical autonomy in complex environments and develop demonstration framework.
FY 2024 Plans:
- 10.500 10.775
Volume 1 - 95
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 8 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-04 / ADVANCED LAND SYSTEMS
TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Identify concepts and technologies to enable long duration ground platforms.
- Identify concepts and technologies that enable contested environments operations utilizing advanced ground autonomy,
perception and decision making.
- Mature framework for human-machine embodied decision making for enhanced situational awareness across environments.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects increased investigations into artificial intelligence enabled teaming between manned-unmanned
forces.
Title: Urban Reconnaissance through Supervised Autonomy (URSA)
Description: The Urban Reconnaissance through Supervised Autonomy (URSA) program is developing and demonstrating
new autonomous agents and techniques that support a Blue Force Commander in managing the complexity and ambiguity of
urban spaces by rapidly identifying and discriminating among potential threats during missions ranging from minutes to hours.
The program uses perception-enabled autonomous vehicles to manage complexity and interactions with populations to drive
down the ambiguity between peaceful civilians and threats. The program will create a system of autonomous ground and air
platforms operating in conjunction with U.S. ground forces that monitor an area overtly to detect hostile forces and establish
Positive Identification (PID) before any U.S. troops come into contact. Military units follow strict rules of engagement (ROEs) that
prescribe an escalation of force appropriate with the level of hostilities and confidence that an individual is engaged in nefarious
behavior. This program will establish a Legal, Moral, Ethical (LME) working group comprising multiple individuals (technologists,
military, university professors, ethicists, legal experts) to develop an understanding of how escalation and/or de-escalation of force
can and should be appropriately applied in the context of supervised autonomous systems. URSA is exploring scenarios and
probing behaviors to enable identifying innocent civilians and individuals who pose a threat to U.S. Forces, allies, or non-combat
civilians. This mission requires the integration and maturation of novel sensors, and unmanned ground and air vehicles which
leverage current techniques in perspective and reactive autonomy to navigate cluttered urban environments. URSA is developing
new search and engagement behaviors to disambiguate human actions and serve as evidence that a potential target is a threat.
It is implementing new dimensions of evidence such as the human reactions to these engagements to improve confidence in its
decisions and building a novel framework for escalating and de-escalating nonlethal force.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Conduct the final system end-to-end performance evaluation in a live environment.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
8.000 6.850 -
Title: Competing in Undergoverned Spaces 10.460 - -
Volume 1 - 96
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 9 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-04 / ADVANCED LAND SYSTEMS
TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Description: A vast majority of U.S. technology is focused on gaining competitive advantage against near peer adversaries in
kinetic engagements where there are known rules and players, concrete timelines and clear winners and losers. While these finite
games are important, many critical engagements are closer to infinite contests--dynamic, diffuse high dimensionality interactions
that play out over long periods with an ultimate goal of resetting the regional power and influence equilibrium. Competing in
these contests is critical for successful stabilization and Humanitarian Assistance Disaster Relief (HADR) missions, as well as
operations in undergoverned spaces. Some undergoverned spaces are geographic, where local governance is sufficiently weak
such that internal or external parties can compete for influence over the local population. Some contested undergoverned spaces
are more conceptual yet still very real, defined by virtual or physical domains that lack or regularly violate ethical, legal, social
and institutional order such as supply chains, the cyber-domain, or the creation of new rulesets by unilateral unopposed action
in space. The Competing in Undergoverned Spaces developed technologies that focused on successfully competing in infinite
contests by developing tools for situational awareness and interpretation of signals, constant acting, assessing and adapting (i.e.,
iterative Hypothesis A/B testing) and new ways of viewing experimentation from a foundation of asynchronous observations and
actions. Specific areas of interest included information, influence or economic tools that rapidly adapt to the environment to yield
specific effects that can be sensed. This included developing new options to engage friendly/non-friendly local populations while
minimizing the social impact of stabilization. Other areas of interest included sensing tools designed to update pre-existing models
to support decision making, and decision tools designed to adapt to changing population or adversary actions.
Title: Subterranean (SubT) Challenge
Description: The DARPA Subterranean (SubT) Challenge developed novel integrated solutions capable of mapping, navigating,
and searching complex and dynamic terrains (tunnel systems, urban underground and cave networks); sensors and computation
for perception in austere conditions; distributed information sharing in degraded communications environments; and collaborative
autonomy enabling extended operations with minimal human intervention. The core objective of the SubT Challenge was
to discover the solution(s) which best outperforms current approaches for manually and laboriously mapping and searching
subterranean environments. Newly developed capabilities spanned across four technology focus areas in autonomy, perception,
networking, and mobility technologies. The program increased the diversity, versatility, and robustness of relevant system
technologies, capable of addressing the multi-faceted needs of a wide range of environments. Innovations were explored in the
context of a public-facing, broadly inclusive DARPA Challenge.
4.000 - -
Accomplishments/Planned Programs Subtotals
57.163 65.157 60.481
C. Other Program Funding Summary ($ in Millions)
N/A
Volume 1 - 97
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 10 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-04 / ADVANCED LAND SYSTEMS
TECHNOLOGY
C. Other Program Funding Summary ($ in Millions)
Remarks
D. Acquisition Strategy
N/A
Volume 1 - 98
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 11 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-07 / AERONAUTICS AND SPACE
TECHNOLOGY
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
TT-07: AERONAUTICS AND
SPACE TECHNOLOGY
- 34.662 31.572 74.675 - 74.675 65.516 64.585 61.395 61.245 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
Aeronautics and Space Technology efforts will address high payoff opportunities that dramatically reduce costs associated with advanced aeronautical and space
systems and/or provide revolutionary new system capabilities for satisfying current and projected military mission requirements. This includes advanced technology
studies of revolutionary propulsion, vehicle, and launch concepts, sophisticated fabrication methods, and examination of novel materials and enabling technologies for
aeronautics and space system applications. Studies that also fundamentally change the calculus of battle including consideration of a mix of assets, platforms that are
potentially disposable or with limited lifespans, and autonomous integration of space and air platforms in the tactical battlespace are included.
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Title: Advanced Aeronautics and Space Technologies
Description: The Advanced Aeronautics and Space Technologies program examines and evaluates aeronautical and space
technologies and concepts through applied research. These may include feasibility studies of novel or emergent materials,
sensors and tactics for air and space platforms, launch vehicles, satellites, as well as manufacturing and implementation
approaches. The areas of interest range from propulsion and power, guidance and control, concepts to enable novel air
platforms, to innovative technologies and platform concepts to enable new missions and resilient operations for space systems,
from low earth orbit to cislunar space. Aeronautics interest areas include hybrid electric/combustion propulsion concepts, small-
scale air mobility solutions, and networking of both piloted and unpiloted air vehicles. Space interest areas include advanced
or novel power and propulsion systems, novel sensors, advanced lightweight structures, advanced miniature radio frequency
(RF) technology, precision navigation and timing technologies, ground and space-based space domain awareness, avionics,
structures, and advanced communications. These studies may lead to the development of new programs, components or
subsystems to enhance future aerospace platforms, or improvement of existing systems.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Refine conceptual design studies and test emerging technologies.
- Extend and develop modeling and simulation that support future concepts and novel architectures.
- Integrate feasible and practical technologies into systems level demonstration vehicles.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Explore updated and new architectures for aerospace vehicle concepts.
- Improve ability of piloted and unpiloted vehicles to cooperate to enhance mission effectiveness.
3.500 7.772 9.975
Volume 1 - 99
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 12 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-07 / AERONAUTICS AND SPACE
TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Identify concepts and technologies to provide improved resilience, survivability, and lethality in contested environments.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects increased investment in mission capable aerospace manned/unmanned vehicle effectiveness.
Title: Oversight
Description: Oversight will develop and demonstrate a suite of autonomy technologies to provide constant custody of targets as
a service for tactical operations in contested environments. Existing and emerging space systems will be evaluated. Proliferated
Low Earth Orbit (p-LEO) satellite constellations and payloads will be leveraged due to their high-bandwidth, processing-on-the-
edge capabilities in support of tactical, efficient, integrated missions at scale. Oversight will develop autonomous technology to
enable advanced collaboration among constellations of satellites for target custody in contested environments where the numbers
of targets is far greater than the number of satellites and sensors over the operating area. The Oversight program will culminate
with a demonstration using existing on-orbit p-LEO assets combined with live, virtual and constructive terrestrial assets.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Perform systems engineering for a conceptual operational design.
- Conduct analysis necessary to derive system requirements for track custody, resource management and infrastructure support.
- Conduct assessment of government-owned applications and services that could be leveraged for system development.
- Establish a government-owned modeling and simulation framework for evaluating performer algorithms.
- Develop a software development kit and interface documents for incorporating software into the modeling and simulation
framework.
- Begin development of necessary for constant custody algorithms for software applications and services.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Continue development of necessary for constant custody algorithms for software applications and services.
- Incorporate target scenarios, satellite constellation resources and ground resources into the framework.
- Demonstrate capability of applications and services in a performer-provided laboratory environment.
- Evolve the applications from the framework to incorporate target scenarios, satellite constellations resources and ground
resources.
- Conduct demonstration of performer-developed suite of software applications and services running in the loop on representative
space hardware in the government modeling and simulation environment to assess performance of constant custody of 100
targets.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
- 23.800 24.990
Volume 1 - 100
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 13 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-07 / AERONAUTICS AND SPACE
TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
The FY 2024 decrease reflects minor program repricing.
Title: Gambit
Description: The Gambit program will develop and demonstrate a Rotating Detonation Engine (RDE) propulsion system that
enables standoff strike of time-critical targets from 4th generation fighters at campaign scale. Gambit will initially conduct a
conceptual design of an Operational System (OS) that meets the mission objectives and a Demonstration System (DS) RDE
propulsion system that meets requirements derived from the performer's OS. To substantiate the preliminary DS design, Gambit
will execute RDE combustor testing and inlet testing. Next, Gambit will complete detailed design, fabrication, and ground testing
of a full-scale, weapon-traceable DS at flight conditions. Successful completion of Gambit will pave a path to a flight test of a
prototype weapon in a future program.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Complete conceptual design of operational and demonstration systems.
- Conduct preliminary design of demonstration system.
- Fabricate RDE combustor and initiate testing.
- Fabricate sub-scale inlet and initiate testing.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects program initiation.
- - 23.330
Title: Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay (POWER)
Description: The Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay (POWER) program will develop and demonstrate low-loss redirection
relays to enable architectures where the beam propagates predominantly at high altitudes, minimizing atmospheric absorption and
scattering. By developing wavefront correction, this program will demonstrate long-range power beaming using small, militarily
relevant apertures. Investing in scalable and selectable energy harvesting will ensure the persistent operation of the network. The
POWER program will enable a distributed network of high-altitude persistent unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that direct laser
energy through a network of ground, sea, and air-based assets to meet energy needs of a dynamic future battlespace. The key
enabling technology is a scalable airborne optical energy relay node that can redirect, correct, and selectively harvest energy from
a directed energy source. These technologies will enable a flexible, resilient, reconfigurable, persistent, and distributed energy
network.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Complete airborne relay Conceptual Design Review (CoDR).
- Initiate development of low power relays able to demonstrate beam redirect, wavefront correction, and energy harvesting to
support risk reduction of high-power relay.
- - 16.380
Volume 1 - 101
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 14 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-07 / AERONAUTICS AND SPACE
TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Validate propagation modeling based on low power relay testing.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects program initiation.
Title: Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE)
Description: The Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) program is demonstrating revolutionary
improvements in aircraft controls technology. The program will design, build, and flight test an aircraft able to fly and maneuver
at altitude relying on state-of-the-art Active Flow Control (AFC) technology. AFC is a broad term that encompasses a range of
technology approaches; it includes a number of control mechanisms which alter the aerodynamic flow field thru ejection or suction
of fluid via an orifice on a lifting body. An emphasis of the program is assessing AFC component technologies, risk reduction and
experimentation, integrated testing, fabrication and demonstration of a relevant scale novel and innovative aircraft. Technologies,
design tools and models developed and demonstrated under this program will be made available to all Services as well as the
civilian aerospace sector for application to future air systems development. Beginning in FY 2023, this program is funded in PE
0603286E, Project AIR-01.
25.507 - -
Title: Gremlins
Description: The Gremlins program developed platform technologies that enable a new class of distributed warfare. The
Gremlins concept envisioned small air-launched unmanned systems that could be responsively dispatched in volley quantity
from existing air platforms, fly into contested airspace, conduct a moderate duration mission, and be ultimately air recovered.
Key enabling technologies for the concept included smaller developmental payloads that benefited from multiple collaborating
host platforms. The Gremlins program conducted risk reduction and development of the host platform launch and recovery
capability and developed and demonstrated a recoverable Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) platform concept. Enabling platform
technologies included precision relative navigation, advanced computational modeling, small form factor payloads, compact
propulsion systems, and highspeed digital flight control. The program leveraged these technologies, performed analytic trade
studies, conducted incremental development, and demonstrated the potential for an integrated air-launched Gremlins unmanned
platform capable of conducting distributed air operations.
5.655 - -
Accomplishments/Planned Programs Subtotals
34.662 31.572 74.675
C. Other Program Funding Summary ($ in Millions)
N/A
Remarks
Volume 1 - 102
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 15 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-07 / AERONAUTICS AND SPACE
TECHNOLOGY
D. Acquisition Strategy
N/A
Volume 1 - 103
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 16 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-13 / INFORMATION ANALYTICS
TECHNOLOGY
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
TT-13: INFORMATION
ANALYTICS TECHNOLOGY
- 86.285 87.502 91.634 - 91.634 92.135 97.100 114.892 114.893 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The Information Analytics Technology project develops technology for analyzing data and information arising from: 1) intelligence networks; 2) open sources, social
and broadcast media, and other external sources; 3) sensors and signal/image processors; and 4) collection platforms and weapon systems. Technical challenges
include processing huge volumes of diverse, incomplete, and uncertain data in tactically-relevant timeframes, and countering the information operations of sophisticated
adversaries who seek to deceive, degrade, deny, and disrupt the U.S. information enterprise. Benefits sought include a deeper understanding of the evolving operational
environment tailored to the needs of commanders at every echelon; an enhanced capability to plan, monitor, and control diverse military operations ranging from
stabilization and information operations to combat engagements; and increased efficiency of core military functions such as national and homeland security, warfighter
health and readiness, and defense support of law enforcement and civil authorities.
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Title: Influence Campaign Awareness and Sensemaking (INCAS)
Description: The Influence Campaign Awareness and Sensemaking (INCAS) program is developing analyst-guided techniques,
tools, and platforms for the DoD to detect and understand geopolitical influence campaigns in a rigorous, quantitative manner.
Increasingly, competitors and adversaries are using influence operations to project soft power. Competitor and adversary
influence campaigns can be overt in the form of anti-U.S. messaging, or they can be disguised in the form of complex narratives
that seek to advance agendas harmful to U.S. interests. The U.S. Government and DoD need the capability to rapidly detect and
understand competitor and adversary messaging campaigns and narratives within the context of the populations and groups for
whom they are intended. To accomplish this, the program will develop and operationalize natural language processing, social
network analysis, psychographics, and behavioral science-based technologies, and integrate these into a unified influence
campaign modeling framework and sensemaking platform. INCAS aims to produce a suite of automated digital tools to enable
analysts to better understand how information is being used by competitors and adversaries, and to quantitatively assess in real
time and at scale the effects of influence campaigns across time and over multiple platforms.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Extend tools for extraction of additional influence indicators and of demographic and psychographic population attributes from
social media and other messaging at scale, including multimedia messaging.
- Develop tools that correlate influence indicators in messaging with population attributes to explain and anticipate responses and
analytics for assessing the threat, similarity, and confidence of campaign models.
- Demonstrate integration with falsified media tools that can provide additional indicators for adversary influence messaging and
campaign elements.
13.500 21.499 19.000
Volume 1 - 104
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 17 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-13 / INFORMATION ANALYTICS
TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Implement analytics in the testbed infrastructure and deploy technologies that support experimentation by operational
stakeholders.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Extend multimedia analytics to discover influence indicators in video and other media and associate these indicators with
targeted population attributes.
- Develop analytics for assessing the threat and similarity of adversary influence campaigns based on multiple social media
platforms.
- Extend datasets, human-machine interfaces, and workflows to quantify the effectiveness of influence campaign response
strategies.
- Provide technology to potential transition sponsors to enable military users to assess utility against adversary influence
campaigns.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects ramping down of development of techniques to detect and characterize influence campaigns and
focus shifting to assessment of the techniques and transition.
Title: Semantic Forensics (SemaFor)
Description: The Semantic Forensics (SemaFor) program is developing technologies to defend against multimedia falsification
and disinformation campaigns. Statistical detection techniques have been successful, but media generation and manipulation
technologies applicable to imagery, voice, video, text, and other modalities are advancing rapidly. Purely statistical detection
methods are now insufficient to detect these manipulations, especially when multiple modalities are involved. Existing media
generation and manipulation algorithms are data driven and are prone to making semantic errors that provide defenders an
opportunity for asymmetric advantage. SemaFor is developing semantic and statistical analysis algorithms that determine if media
is generated or manipulated, attribution algorithms that infer if media originates from a particular organization or individual, and
characterization algorithms that reason about whether media was falsified (generated or manipulated) for malicious purposes.
SemaFor aims to create technologies to identify, deter, and understand adversary media falsification.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Develop software prototype to address adversarial threat scenarios and to facilitate a deeper understanding of falsified media.
- Implement more advanced forms of machine learning and artificial intelligence in media falsification detection, attribution, and
characterization techniques for emerging complex adversarial falsified media.
- Extend datasets and evaluation efforts to include disinformation in technical documents, media collections, and diverse social
media feeds, and conduct demonstration of algorithmic capabilities for use cases of interest to transition partners.
21.921 22.015 18.000
Volume 1 - 105
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 18 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-13 / INFORMATION ANALYTICS
TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Refine application programming interfaces to include multiple sources, and provide multimodal (image, video, audio, or text)
system enhancements based on input from transition partners and other stakeholders.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Refine approaches for reasoning about falsification across multiple instances of technical information.
- Finalize application programming interfaces including multimodal (image, video, audio, or text) system enhancements based on
input from transition partners and other stakeholders.
- Deliver initial prototype capability to transition partners that addresses adversarial threat scenarios.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease is due to ramping down of development of semantic techniques for reasoning about and detecting
inconsistencies in potentially falsified multimedia and a shift in emphasis to demonstration and transition.
Title: Computational Cultural Understanding (CCU)
Description: The Computational Cultural Understanding (CCU) program is creating cross-cultural language understanding
technologies to improve a DoD operator's situational awareness and interactional effectiveness. CCU natural language processing
technologies will recognize, adapt to, and recommend how to operate within emotional, social, and cultural norms that differ
across societies, languages, and group affinities. To support diverse and emergent use cases, CCU technologies will be
engineered to require minimal-to-no training data in a local culture, while maximizing operator success during negotiations and
other interactions in the field. CCU will create new component technologies for sociocultural norm discovery, cross-cultural
emotion recognition, and communicative change detection. The program will incorporate these component technologies into a
prototype platform to assist military users with cross-cultural dialogue.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Develop a means to analyze interactions between sociocultural norms and emotional feedback, and extend development to a
second language-culture pair.
- Evaluate technologies for sociocultural analysis and cross-cultural dialogue assistance within negotiation scenarios of interest,
such as discovery of local perspectives on an issue, gathering of logistical information, or requesting access to resources.
- Develop a means to understand cultural concepts and integrate a concept acquisition framework in automated systems.
- Develop an integration testbed for evaluation of cross-cultural language understanding and situational awareness technologies.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Generalize sociocultural analysis and dialogue assistance techniques to encompass multiple language-culture pairs.
- Utilize the integration testbed to evaluate and optimize cross-cultural language understanding and situational awareness
technologies.
12.000 19.200 16.600
Volume 1 - 106
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 19 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-13 / INFORMATION ANALYTICS
TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Implement sociocultural analysis and dialogue assistance capabilities in wearable hardware to facilitate assessment in real-world
scenarios.
- Demonstrate effectiveness of sociocultural analysis and cross-cultural dialogue assistance within additional negotiation
scenarios of potential operational relevance in collaboration with military stakeholders.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects ramping down of development and implementation of technologies for cross-cultural language
understanding and situational awareness and a shift in emphasis to demonstration and evaluation with military stakeholders.
Title: Resilient Supply-and-Demand Networks (RSDN)
Description: The Resilient Supply-and-Demand Networks (RSDN) program is developing supply-chain risk management
analytics to detect systemic vulnerabilities and improve resilience in supply and demand networks. At present, the separation
of supply-chain information into confidential silos obscures a system-wide view, inhibiting comprehensive risk-focused analysis
of supply and demand networks. RSDN is developing techniques for modeling both the broad level of the supply-chain
network and the detailed level of individual procurement agreements. Network analytics and visualizations will reveal emerging
fragilities and enable deep situational awareness of systemic vulnerabilities and potential disruptions. Blind spots due to hidden
interdependencies can lead to fragility in supply chains. An RSDN stress-testing framework will enable repeatable scenario
analysis of strategic vulnerabilities in supply and demand networks, automated analysis and discovery of patterns of risk, and
evaluation of alternative risk mitigation strategies.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Develop semantically rich representations (such as graphs) of contractual relationships as the basis for visualizing supply and
demand networks.
- Develop an initial library of vulnerability analytics and visualizations to reveal and understand strategic risks in supply and
demand networks.
- Instantiate initial datasets for representative use cases and begin development of a stress-testing framework to illuminate the
propagation of realistic shock scenarios through a supply and demand network.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Augment the initial datasets with supplemental information about the participants and their relationships to provide a granular
view of each supply and demand network.
- Expand the initial library of vulnerability analytics and visualizations with new methods and algorithms to illuminate supply and
demand network blind spots and identify data gaps.
- Demonstrate a stress-testing capability to assess the propagation of shock scenarios through a supply and demand network and
to motivate suitable mitigation strategies.
- 9.786 15.000
Volume 1 - 107
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 20 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-13 / INFORMATION ANALYTICS
TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Demonstrate an initial end-to-end system for mapping supply and demand networks, analyzing systemic fragilities, and
conducting stress-testing evaluations.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects scaling up of development of techniques for a stress-testing capability for supply and demand
networks and initiation of efforts to demonstrate and assess the stress-testing capability.
Title: Beyond Linear Signal Processing (BLiP)
Description: The Beyond Linear Signal Processing (BLiP) program will perform a fundamental redevelopment of the radar signal
processing chain with the intent that smaller radar apertures will operate with the performance of much larger, more expensive
radar systems. Building upon earlier technology efforts, including the Arrays at Commercial Timescales (ACT) program (previously
budgeted in PE 0602716E/Project ELT-01), which focused on hardware-based limitations such as bandwidth and dynamic range,
BLiP will focus on the software and signal processing to fundamentally enhance all radars. Multiple recent developments show
that non-linear and iterative estimation algorithms can out-perform our current linear radar signal processing algorithms. BLiP will
develop and mature the algorithms for specific radar mission areas through rapid development, integration, real-time processing,
and field testing.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Determine radar modes for baseline operation and processing chain.
- Produce initial collection from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) radar for distribution to performers.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Conduct a series of field data collections with well-characterized radar targets.
- Develop signal processing baseline and BLiP system performance models for a specific mission area.
- Commence development of the end-to-end processing algorithms and techniques.
- Acquire and install high performance graphical processing unit (GPU) into real time processing chain at NOAA radar facility.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects a shift from initial data collection to development.
- 4.000 15.000
Title: Competition in the Information Environment (CIE)
Description: The Competition in the Information Environment (CIE) program aims to develop technologies to enable the U.S.
to conduct information operations (IO) that achieve positive outcomes against the full range of IO-enabled competitors and
adversaries. The expanding importance of information has allowed state and non-state actors to influence global audiences
and advance their objectives through the use of manipulated information and IO. In addition, peer adversary nation-states are
making concerted efforts to corrupt U.S. scientific and technical data in order to degrade the U.S. innovation ecosystem and to
- - 8.034
Volume 1 - 108
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 21 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-13 / INFORMATION ANALYTICS
TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
steal U.S. intellectual property in order to achieve commercial and economic advantage. CIE will advance U.S. IO capabilities
by a combined information technology and social science approach that spans data analysis, natural language understanding,
multimedia analysis, information integrity assurance, and social modeling and simulation. CIE will seek to advance capabilities
for estimating the integrity and veracity of disseminated scientific and technical information, anticipating the spread of information
across geo-social boundaries, and reducing the harmful influence of misinformation and disinformation on global populations.
The technologies to be developed in CIE are essential for the U.S. to compete successfully against adversaries who are making
increasing use of IO.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Explore statistical, information-theoretic, semantic, and other approaches for quantifying and estimating the integrity and veracity
of disseminated scientific and technical information.
- Devise modeling and simulation-based approaches for anticipating the spread of information across geo-social boundaries.
- Formulate social science-based approaches for reducing the harmful influence of misinformation and disinformation on global
populations and for measuring the effectiveness of alternative approaches.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects program initiation.
Title: Adapting Cross-domain Kill-Webs (ACK)
Description: The Adapting Cross-domain Kill-Webs (ACK) program is assisting military decision makers with rapidly identifying
and selecting options for tasking and re-tasking assets within and across organizational boundaries. Based on technologies
developed in the Resilient Synchronized Planning and Assessment for the Contest Environment (RSPACE) program (previously
budgeted in PE 0603766E, Project NET-01), ACK will assist users with selecting sensors, effectors, and support elements across
military domains (space, air, land, surface, subsurface, and cyber) to form and adapt kill chains to deliver desired effects on
targets. Today's Command and Control (C2) organizations and processes cannot support multi-domain warfighting concepts,
especially during joint operations. ACK will address this challenge by utilizing a decentralized approach to allocating resources
to tasks and assigning mission orders to assets, motivated by ideas developed in online commerce, sourcing, and supply chain
management, such as bid requests and offers. The impact of ACK will be to accelerate asset re-allocation and assignment
decision timelines to be on the order of minutes, and the output of ACK will be automated tools and decision aids to support
the selection of the elements of a kill-chain and assignment of roles and responsibilities to each of the elements. Technology
developed under this program will transition to the Services.
FY 2023 Plans:
10.500 7.000 -
Volume 1 - 109
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 22 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-13 / INFORMATION ANALYTICS
TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Conduct evaluation capstone event.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
Title: Data-Driven Discovery of Models (D3M)
Description: The Data-Driven Discovery of Models (D3M) program is developing automated model discovery techniques
and tools that enable non-expert users to create empirical models of real, complex processes and phenomena. The ability
to understand the battlespace is driven increasingly by expert analysis of sensor and open-source data. The DoD and IC
communities are fundamentally limited by a shortage of domain-focused subject matter expert data scientists to construct
empirical models that predict behaviors and anticipate contingencies during tactical and strategic planning. D3M is addressing this
need by creating technologies that automate the construction of complex empirical models. D3M technologies include a library
of data modeling primitives that are automatically selectable, automated approaches for composition of complex models from
modeling primitives, and intuitive mechanisms for human-model interaction that enable curation of models by non-experts. D3M is
focused on the types of empirical modeling problems commonly encountered by the DoD and IC.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Harden and transition software tools to DoD partners.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 decrease reflects program completion.
5.000 4.002 -
Title: Causal Exploration of Complex Operational Environments
Description: The Causal Exploration of Complex Operational Environments program developed advanced modeling, analysis,
simulation, and visualization tools to enable command staffs to rapidly and effectively design, plan, and manage missions in
complex operational environments. The U.S. military increasingly operates in remote and unstable parts of the world where
mission success depends heavily on cooperation with a wide variety of stakeholder groups on civil, economic, and military
matters. These groups typically include host nation government organizations, local civilian groups, and non-governmental
organizations, each of which has priorities, sensitivities, and concerns that may differ significantly. Current mission design and
planning technologies do not adequately model the range of options or the inherent uncertainties. This program developed tools
to create causal, computational models that represent the most significant relationships, dynamics, interactions, and uncertainties
of the operational environment including political, military, economic, and social factors. These tools will enable command staffs to
design and quantitatively assess potential courses of action in complex operational environments.
4.364 - -
Title: Warfighter Analytics using Smartphones for Health (WASH) 4.000 - -
Volume 1 - 110
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602702E: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 23 of 23 R-1 Line #20
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602702E / TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
TT-13 / INFORMATION ANALYTICS
TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Description: The Warfighter Analytics using Smartphones for Health (WASH) program developed analytic techniques
for continuous and real-time assessment of warfighters based on the multiple sensor data streams generated by modern
smartphones. Smartphone sensors provide a rich source of information that can be used to identify a user's health activities and
environment and also provide a proximity detection capability.
Accomplishments/Planned Programs Subtotals
71.285 87.502 91.634
FY 2022 FY 2023
Congressional Add: AI Cyber Data Analytics (Data) - Congressional Add
FY 2022 Accomplishments: - Developed indicators that can be extracted from textual media, message
metadata, and message context to identify influence messaging that may be part of adversary influence
campaigns.
- Formulated heuristics for examining and stress testing an operational environment model that is suitable for
use by military planners.
- Developed and expanded algorithms for falsified media detection and attribution, along with targeted tools for
analysts without deep forensic backgrounds and for adversarial threat scenarios.
15.000 -
Congressional Adds Subtotals
15.000 -
C. Other Program Funding Summary ($ in Millions)
N/A
Remarks
D. Acquisition Strategy
N/A
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THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
UNCLASSIFIED
Volume 1 - 112
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602715E: MATERIALS AND BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 1 of 22 R-1 Line #21
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602715E / MATERIALS AND BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
Total Program Element
- 307.198 337.726 344.986 - 344.986 349.088 364.042 385.125 402.240 - -
MBT-01: MATERIALS
PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY
- 128.783 147.402 150.549 - 150.549 158.820 164.218 170.475 184.612 - -
MBT-02: BIOLOGICALLY
BASED MATERIALS AND
DEVICES
- 178.415 190.324 194.437 - 194.437 190.268 199.824 214.650 217.628 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The efforts described in this Program Element (PE) address the Applied Research associated with the Materials and Biological Technology Program that is focused on
developing materials and biological technologies that make possible a wide range of new military capabilities. This PE also supports innovation and robust transition
planning in the technology cycle by working with entrepreneurs to increase the likelihood that DARPA funded technologies take root in the U.S. and provide new
capabilities for national defense.
The major goal of the Materials Processing Technology project is to develop novel materials, fabrication and processing techniques, models, devices and components
that will lower the cost, increase the performance, and/or enable new missions for military platforms and systems. Included in this project are efforts across a wide range
of technology areas including manufacturing, electronics, sensors, optics, and complex and autonomous systems.
The Biologically Based Materials and Devices project will leverage the growing application space of the biological sciences for the development of new DoD capabilities
to improve the sustainability of warfighters, and operational platforms in varied environments. This project will develop solutions for critical resource processing,
materials development, threat detection and characterization, environmental remediation, and warfighter resilience to infectious disease and environmental stressors.
The materials developed through this project will protect and sustain warfighters and operations in austere environments. This project supports innovation and robust
transition planning in the technology cycle by working with entrepreneurs to increase the likelihood that DARPA-funded technologies take root in the U.S. and provide
new capabilities for national defense.
Volume 1 - 113
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602715E: MATERIALS AND BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 2 of 22 R-1 Line #21
Exhibit R-2, RDT&E Budget Item Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide / BA 2:
Applied Research
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602715E / MATERIALS AND BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY
B. Program Change Summary ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 Base FY 2024 OCO FY 2024 Total
Previous President's Budget 308.024 352.976 339.904 - 339.904
Current President's Budget 307.198 337.726 344.986 - 344.986
Total Adjustments -0.826 -15.250 5.082 - 5.082
• Congressional General Reductions 0.000 -15.250
• Congressional Directed Reductions 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Rescissions 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Adds 0.000 0.000
• Congressional Directed Transfers 0.000 0.000
• Reprogrammings 9.306 0.000
• SBIR/STTR Transfer -10.132 0.000
• TotalOtherAdjustments - - 5.082 - 5.082
Change Summary Explanation
FY 2022: Decrease reflects SBIR/STTR transfer offset by reprogrammings.
FY 2023: Decrease reflects a Congressional reduction to Reduce Growth.
FY 2024: Increase reflects initiation of the Turning Upcycled Waste into Novel, Sustainable Materials, Signal Processing and Communication with Biotechnology
and Strengthening Resilient Emotions and Nimble Cognition Through Engineering Neuroplasticity (STRENGTHEN)programs.
Volume 1 - 114
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602715E: MATERIALS AND BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 3 of 22 R-1 Line #21
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602715E / MATERIALS AND BIOLOG
ICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
MBT-01 / MATERIALS PROCESSING
TECHNOLOGY
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
MBT-01: MATERIALS
PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY
- 128.783 147.402 150.549 - 150.549 158.820 164.218 170.475 184.612 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The major goal of the Materials Processing Technology project is to develop novel materials, fabrication and processing techniques, models, devices and components
that will lower the cost, increase the performance, and/or enable new missions for military platforms and systems. Included in this project are efforts across a wide range
of technology areas including manufacturing, electronics, sensors, optics, and complex and autonomous systems.
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Title: Materials for Extreme Environments
Description: The Materials for Extreme Environments thrust is exploring new materials, innovative architectures, and
development processes that will significantly enhance the performance and persistence of DoD platforms operating in extremely
harsh environments. Materials with superior strength, functionality, and resiliency are critical for enabling DoD platforms, weapons
and other components to operate and persist under conditions including, but not limited to, extremely high or low temperatures,
turbulence, ionizing radiation, and/or corrosive environments. Recent developments in materials such as high entropy alloys,
superconducting materials, and infiltrated carbon fiber composites hold promise for achieving material solutions for improved
survivability in a wide range of harsh environmental conditions. Similarly, advancements in material design, processing and
manufacturing are enabling novel material architectures that can further enhance performance and resilience in structures such
as leading edges, windows and apertures, propulsion systems, and space structures. Exemplar areas of research within the
Materials for Extreme Environments thrust include the following: 1) high temperature materials for hypersonic platforms, 2) high
temperature window and aperture materials, 3) radiation and/or electromagnetic pulse (EMP) hardened electronics for space
platforms, 4) coatings for platform survivability in corrosive environments, 5) active and passive cooling methods for apertures and
forward-facing vehicle features, and 6) high magnetic field and superconducting materials for undersea magnetohydrodynamic
pumps.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Further scale manufacturing of thermally managed leading-edge components and validate enhanced trajectory performance
through ground testing.
- Conduct system-level platform integration studies and risk reduction ground testing to foster technology transition.
- Assess candidate ground integration and flight demonstration options and identify viable flight demonstration platforms.
- Maximize thermal management capability to enable use of commodity materials.
- Conduct ground testing of thermal managed leading-edge technology integrated with vehicle.
55.094 56.352 60.509
Volume 1 - 115
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602715E: MATERIALS AND BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 4 of 22 R-1 Line #21
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602715E / MATERIALS AND BIOLOG
ICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
MBT-01 / MATERIALS PROCESSING
TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Demonstrate initial proof of concept of novel sensing capabilities suitable for hypersonic platforms under high temperature
conditions with selected materials.
- Develop and validate manufacturing models for scaled infrared and radio frequency materials suitable for high heat flux
oxidative conditions to support transition.
- Conduct tests with newly developed testing capabilities for determining infrared and radio frequency performance under high
temperature oxidative conditions.
- Develop system-level models that project improved seeking capability.
- Develop and populate a government-use software repository and materials database to exercise system-level models to predict
system performance.
- Determine achievable properties of materials manufactured using processing methods applicable to lunar surface processes.
- Validate material build rate for manufacturing processes based on lunar sourced materials.
- Demonstrate exemplar components for solar array structures using lunar surface derived materials.
- Identify concepts for foundational technologies to enable sustained very low Earth orbit (VLEO) operations.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Validate system-level models that couple vehicle geometry, materials response, and vehicle trajectory to performance.
- Demonstrate increase precision of the materials and manufacturing system to enable the exemplar application of a >100-meter
diameter radio frequency (RF) reflector antenna.
- Refine manufacturing and cost models based on fabrication trials of higher precision subcomponents.
- Demonstrate ability to meet area built per mass launched metric (10 meters squared per kilogram) in a laboratory setting by
testing higher precision subcomponents.
- Demonstrate manufacturing models for large scale infrared and radio frequency apertures suitable for high heat flux oxidative
conditions to support transition.
- Conduct testing of novel infrared and radio frequency apertures suitable for hypersonic platforms under high-temperature
conditions to validate performance models.
- Prepare bench top demonstration(s) of novel technology for sustained very low Earth orbit (VLEO) operations.
- Determine the feasibility of the novel technologies to enable sustained very low Earth orbit (VLEO) operations.
- Conduct initial design trades for undersea magnetohydrodynamic pumps.
- Produce conceptual point designs for undersea magnetohydrodynamic pump prototypes.
- Generate material models based on conceptual point designs for undersea magnetohydrodynamic pump prototypes.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY 2024 increase reflects a shift from model development to fabrication and demonstration.
Title: Functional Materials and Devices 45.204 52.650 52.935
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UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602715E: MATERIALS AND BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 5 of 22 R-1 Line #21
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602715E / MATERIALS AND BIOLOG
ICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
MBT-01 / MATERIALS PROCESSING
TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Description: The Functional Materials and Devices thrust is developing advanced materials, components and systems to improve
device performance for DoD sensing, imaging and communication applications. One focus of this thrust involves development
of advanced transductional materials that convert one form of energy to another for DoD-relevant applications in areas such as
thermoelectrics. While promising transduction materials are known for a variety of applications, integration into devices has not
been realized. Another focus area is the development of physics-based models that predict material behavior when illuminated
by high peak power electromagnetic interference. A third focus area involves development of new multi-functional materials and
device designs that will radically decrease the size, weight and power requirements of electron, neutron, and gamma sources
for high-resolution neutron, gamma and x-ray imaging. Such devices should enable fieldable detection units for non-destructive
evaluation of parts, detection of explosives and other DoD-relevant targets. A fourth focus area is developing new liquid-based,
large-aperture imaging systems such as telescopes. Such telescopes would break the unfavorable, exponential scaling between
aperture size and cost for normal telescopes, and enable low-cost imaging platforms for ground- and space-based applications.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Complete initial prototype for compact gamma ray sources that feature high intensity, tunability, and narrow bandwidth.
- Conduct initial demonstrations of prototypes for compact gamma ray sources that are capable of meeting base phase
performance goals for high intensity (10^10 photons per second) and narrow bandwidth (10%).
- Use optimized designs of planar optics and planar image intensifiers to develop a prototype device.
- Complete testing of compact, ruggedized, electron accelerator components and validate performance consistent with overall
system goals.
- Finalize system design for a compact and ruggedized electron accelerator system based on demonstrated components.
- Simulate asymmetric capabilities of novel obscurants with optical sensors and demonstrate potential to enable asymmetry on
the battlefield.
- Develop new methods for on-demand manipulation of obscurants, potentially creating an actively tunable asymmetric
advantage.
- Design prototype ground- and space-based liquid-mirror telescopes with aperture sized 0.5 meters.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Finalize components and begin system integration of a compact, high-intensity, narrow-bandwidth, and tunable gamma ray
source prototype.
- Finalize system demonstration that illustrates the unique capabilities of a compact, high-intensity, narrow-bandwidth, and
tunable gamma ray source.
- Extended optimized night vision designs to include visual access to an additional infrared spectral band beyond the near-
infrared, i.e., the short-, mid-, or long-wave infrared).
Volume 1 - 117
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602715E: MATERIALS AND BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 6 of 22 R-1 Line #21
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602715E / MATERIALS AND BIOLOG
ICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
MBT-01 / MATERIALS PROCESSING
TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Develop quantities of novel obscurant particles suitable for cubic meter-scale pilot demonstrations of passive obscurants, and
lab-scale demonstrations of active obscurants, and demonstrate asymmetric visibility in both cases.
- Develop novel material testing techniques to generate design-relevant properties 10X faster than current approaches,
eliminating a major bottleneck in the development of new structural materials.
- Explore design frameworks integrating both shape and material as concurrent degrees of freedom to unlock new optimal design
balancing performance, cost, and sustainability metrics.
- Conduct proof-of-concept manufacturing demonstrations to produce and test multi-material structural components.
- Complete preliminary design review and critical design review of large liquid-mirror telescope.
- Begin building lab demo of large liquid-mirror telescope, with plans to double aperture sizes.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY2024 increase reflects minor program repricing.
Title: Chemical Processing for Force Protection
Description: Research in the Chemical Processing for Force Protection thrust is focused on the development of new chemical
approaches and technologies across a broad spectrum of DoD needs. One area involves development of innovative approaches
for scalable small molecule synthesis coupled with predictive tools for route design, possibly offering a new strategy to discover
how to make new molecules such as pharmaceuticals and explosives. Another focus leverages advances in automation to
develop safe, reproducible experimental approaches for systematic development of energetic materials. In addition, investments
in this thrust will advance chemical characterization, information management and analysis, and automation.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Demonstrate formulations developed on semi-automated, reproducible experimental systems with more than six propellant
ingredients at scales over 25 grams per formulation, with on-board sensitivity tests.
- Assess current energetics performance requirements with respect to formulation platform capabilities to determine initial
energetics discovery and system validation targets.
- Initiate propellant and explosive demonstrations on an integrated, semi-automated formulation platform.
- Initiate efforts to develop models of threat mechanisms and evolution associated with adverse genetic effects in food systems.
- Evaluate and demonstrate fundamental limits for fractional recovery of critical elements from e-waste.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Integrate semi-automated experimental platforms into cleared, U.S. Government facilities and demonstrate system operability
through a series of Government-directed demonstrations.
- Generate systematized data sets for energetic formulation development.
12.485 22.400 21.105
Volume 1 - 118
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602715E: MATERIALS AND BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 7 of 22 R-1 Line #21
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602715E / MATERIALS AND BIOLOG
ICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
MBT-01 / MATERIALS PROCESSING
TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
- Initiate efforts to detect and characterize adverse genetic effects by developing initial indicators consistent with an attack in food
systems
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
The FY2024 decrease reflects a shift from system development and test to technology transfer and data refinement.
Title: Reconfigurable Systems
Description: In the Reconfigurable Systems thrust, new approaches are being developed to enable more rapid and robust
adaptation of defense systems and systems-of-systems to changing mission requirements and unpredictable environments. This
includes development of capabilities across sensing, perception, planning and control for autonomous, high-speed operation
in cluttered environments without Global Positioning System (GPS) information. This also includes development of capabilities
to manipulate and control adversary sensory perception and/or situational awareness. Additional work in this thrust focuses
on how sensing systems and military systems-of-systems are designed for real-time resilient response to dynamic, unexpected
signals and contingencies. Research is developing a more unified view of system behavior that allows better understanding and
exploitation of complex interactions among components, including development of formal mathematical approaches to complex
adaptive system composition and design. These capabilities will impact autonomous systems and systems-of-systems, including
those that involve humans, in a variety of DoD-relevant contexts.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Continue development of high-performance portable optical clock with picosecond timing precision.
- Continue development of transportable optical clock with month-long nanosecond holdover.
- Begin engineering design of low size, weight, and power portable and transportable clocks.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Initiate integration of critical components into a high-performance, environmentally-robust portable optical clock device with
picosecond timing precision.
- Initiate integration of critical components into a high-performance, environmentally-robust transportable optical clock with month-
long nanosecond holdover.
7.000 16.000 16.000
Title: Multi-Scale Modeling
Description: The Multi-Scale Modeling thrust developed advanced, multi-physics models to predict the effect of disturbances and/
or perturbations in the space environment in order to inform operational decisions based on current space environment conditions.
Space environment models were limited to predicting long term climatic averages or regularly occurring phenomena and did
not fully account for coupling effects where perturbations in one region of the space environment may produce disturbances in
another region. Approaches for addressing these limitations under the Multi-Scale Modeling thrust included the following: (1)
9.000 - -
Volume 1 - 119
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602715E: MATERIALS AND BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 8 of 22 R-1 Line #21
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602715E / MATERIALS AND BIOLOG
ICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
MBT-01 / MATERIALS PROCESSING
TECHNOLOGY
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
development of observation driven/first-principles theory of magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere coupling; (2) creation of
an extensible assimilation framework for unifying space environment monitoring systems and data; and (3) non-traditional space
environment measurement approaches. These developments helped to ensure the accuracy and spatiotemporal resolution of
space weather models and were sufficient to enable prediction of operationally relevant perturbations and disturbances in the
space environment.
Accomplishments/Planned Programs Subtotals
128.783 147.402 150.549
C. Other Program Funding Summary ($ in Millions)
N/A
Remarks
D. Acquisition Strategy
N/A
Volume 1 - 120
UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602715E: MATERIALS AND BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 9 of 22 R-1 Line #21
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602715E / MATERIALS AND BIOLOG
ICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
MBT-02 / BIOLOGICALLY BASED
MATERIALS AND DEVICES
COST ($ in Millions)
Prior
Years FY 2022 FY 2023
FY 2024
Base
FY 2024
OCO
FY 2024
Total FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027 FY 2028
Cost To
Complete
Total
Cost
MBT-02: BIOLOGICALLY
BASED MATERIALS AND
DEVICES
- 178.415 190.324 194.437 - 194.437 190.268 199.824 214.650 217.628 - -
A. Mission Description and Budget Item Justification
The Biologically Based Materials and Devices project will leverage the growing application space of the biological sciences for the development of new DoD capabilities
to improve the sustainability of warfighters, and operational platforms in varied environments. This project will develop solutions for critical resource processing,
materials development, threat detection and characterization, environmental remediation, and warfighter resilience to infectious disease and environmental stressors.
The materials developed through this project will protect and sustain warfighters and operations in austere environments. This project supports innovation and robust
transition planning in the technology cycle by working with entrepreneurs to increase the likelihood that DARPA-funded technologies take root in the U.S. and provide
new capabilities for national defense.
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
Title: Persistent Terrestrial Living Sensors
Description: The Persistent Terrestrial Living Sensors program is developing engineered biological sensor platforms capable of
detecting land-based threats (e.g., chemicals, radiation, explosives, biologics) and relaying unique signals to existing DoD ground,
air, and space assets. Unlike conventional methods that monitor threats and are limited by sensor energy needs, these biological
sensors are effectively energy independent, increasing the potential for wide distribution and environmental robustness. Resulting
platforms will enable a variety of remote, persistent monitoring and reporting capabilities to address threat scenarios relevant for
national security, including passively detecting neurotoxic chemicals and biological pathogens in outdoor environments. These
sensors will provide a flexible suite to complement conventional sensor systems within the DoD.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Optimize plant sensor to function consistently in enclosed environment simulating ecological stress conditions.
- Perform technical integration of different molecular mechanisms of protein production in mature plants for optimized phenotype.
- Optimize desired effects based on system analysis and redesign for preferred protein production outcomes.
FY 2024 Plans:
- Quantify plant phenotype changes in relevant environments to determine and optimize functional molecular characteristics.
- Integrate technical approaches for plant molecular responses to environmental stimuli and functional protein production.
- Investigate the potential for additional plant phenotypes as an outcome of protein production.
FY 2023 to FY 2024 Increase/Decrease Statement:
17.172 15.140 14.384
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UNCLASSIFIED
PE 0602715E: MATERIALS AND BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY
UNCLASSIFIED
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Page 10 of 22 R-1 Line #21
Exhibit R-2A, RDT&E Project Justification: PB2024Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Date: March 2023
Appropriation/Budget Activity
0400 / 2
R-1 Program Element (Number/Name)
PE 0602715E / MATERIALS AND BIOLOG
ICAL TECHNOLOGY
Project (Number/Name)
MBT-02 / BIOLOGICALLY BASED
MATERIALS AND DEVICES
B. Accomplishments/Planned Programs ($ in Millions)
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
The FY 2024 decrease reflects minor program repricing.
Title: Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors
Description: The Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors program is developing novel capabilities to sense and surveil submersibles
(e.g., submarines, unmanned underwater vehicles) and divers in littoral waters using living organisms present in the environment.
This effort focuses on characterizing marine biological behavior in response to targets of interest and developing the hardware,
software, and algorithms that will translate organism behavior into DoD actionable information. By harnessing the unique
capabilities of biology, including adaptation, response, and replication, work in this program will enable persistent dominance in
contested waters. Results from this research will enhance security for maritime activities and provide DoD naval operations with
new sensing paradigms to complement current sensor technologies used in traditionally challenging regions across the world.
FY 2023 Plans:
- Expand the toolbox of underwater systems to demonstrate objectives in surrogate operational environments.
- Conduct hardware testing and refine the hardware designs based on the end-user's feedback.