Rapid Prototyping Program

The Rapid Prototyping Program (RPP) falls under the Office of the Secretary of Defense and is part of the Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide budget activity. The program's specific goals and objectives include supporting the rapid development of prototypes required in 12-to-24 months to address urgent needs identified through ideation with the Joint Staff, Combatant Commands, or Secretary of Defense guidance. The RPP aims to develop prototypes that reduce technical and integration risk and accelerate capabilities to programs of record and future experimentation, including Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) Joint experiments. Additionally, the program aligns project selection to priority mission and technology areas such as artificial intelligence/machine learning, autonomous systems, hypersonics, electronic warfare, sensors for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), and resilient communications.

Furthermore, RPP facilitates and accelerates joint, cross-cutting prototyping efforts within the Services and Defense Agencies. The program has the agility to select, fund, and implement projects in the year of execution as new opportunities or threats emerge. In consultation with Service Science and Technology executives, selected projects generally receive a single year of funding to accelerate capability transition to Services’ and Agencies’ programs of record. Projects deemed critical by the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USD(R&E)) receive higher amounts of funding across multiple years. Planned funding supports the Joint Warfighting Concept (JWC), critical technology areas identified by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)), as well as Service and Agency needs to enable rapid response to emergent and time-sensitive threats. The program also aims to prototype cutting-edge land, sea, undersea, air, and space capabilities critical to the Joint Warfighting Concept (JWC) and other objectives of the Department of Defense (DoD).