Airbase named a winner of DIU’s Project Spectrum Strike Prize Challenge, demonstrating automated military radio-frequency spectrum coordination
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — NEW YORK, NY — SEPTEMBER 10, 2026
NEW YORK, NY — SEPTEMBER 10, 2026 — The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) recently named Airbase and Xtremis as the winners of the Project Spectrum Strike Prize Challenge, a prize challenge to identify commercial software that can transform how the Department of War (DoW) plans, coordinates, deconflicts, and authorizes use of the radio-frequency spectrum.
The Joint Force depends on critical systems like radios, drones, radar, counter-unmanned aerial systems (cUAS) sensors, electronic warfare systems, none of which can operate without spectrum access. Certifying equipment and authorizing spectrum access historically takes months, sometimes years, through a manual, sequential process spread across disparate, outdated systems. The delay degrades tactical readiness, raises the risk of blue-on-blue electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) interference, and severely stifles the integration of critical capabilities the Joint Force needs to maintain spectrum dominance.
The goal is that any unit, fielding any system, anywhere, gets fast and trustworthy access to spectrum, with approval times cut from months to minutes. In practice, that means new counter-UAS testingcertified and live within weeks. New radios and sensors reaching soldiers the month they arrive rather than a year later. Commanders able to see the full spectrum picture around them and quickly act on it.
The Project Spectrum Strike Prize Challenge sought out “ready-now” software-driven spectrum deconfliction and authorization tools. DIU and its interagency partners were focused on mature, “one-stop-shop” enterprise platforms that can be immediately deployed to reduce spectrum approval timelines to days instead of months.
At Fort Carson, Colorado, alongside Drone Dominance Gauntlet 2, finalists ran end-to-end spectrum management workflows that involved generating new requests, ingesting mission data, modeling interference, and routing through agency rule logic. Spectrum managers then arrived at final and complete authorization decisions in minutes.
Representatives from NTIA, FCC, FAA, and DHS judged the event alongside the DoW Chief Information Officer, Army Spectrum Management, and soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division and 25th Infantry Division.
The Project Spectrum Strike Prize Challenge was built to move working capabilities from live demonstration to enterprise procurement. Other Transaction agreements will scale this to end-to-end spectrum management, starting with counter-UAS at installations and rapid fielding of new systems.
“The credit goes to DIU and the Army for setting a high bar, and to NTIA, FCC, FAA, and DHS for helping drive this important work. Nobody in that room was there to protect the process. They were there to fix one.” said Ari Rosner, Co-Founder and CEO of Airbase. “What Airbase showed at Fort Carson is that the bottleneck was never the spectrum, it was coordination. Our product enabled spectrum managers to run the entire authorization process in minutes instead of months, without compromising accuracy or safety. We are working with DIU, the Army, and across the DoW to make this the default for every unit fielding a new system, and eventually for everyone who needs spectrum.”
Spectrum is a finite resource, yet demand for access has far from slowed. The Army, DIU and their interagency partners just demonstrated what faster, safer, and intelligent spectrum access looks like.
About Airbase
Airbase builds modern software for RF spectrum management, licensing, coordination, and intelligence, helping government, defense and commercial operators automate spectrum access. Airbase is backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Squadra Ventures and is based in New York City. Learn more at www.airbase.us.
