The defense chiefs of the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom have announced the winning companies of the first AUKUS Electronic Warfare Challenge.
Launched in March, the competition aimed to identify electromagnetic spectrum solutions to give AUKUS nations a strategic advantage in targeting and defending against adversarial EW capabilities, the Defense Innovation Unit said Thursday.
The DIU, Australia’s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator and the U.K.’s Defence and Security Accelerator held the challenge to advance AUKUS Pillar II, which seeks to develop new EW technologies to bolster global security.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles and UK Secretary of State for Defence John Healey revealed the competition during their recent meeting in London.
Austin, a three-time Wash100 Award recipient, identified the U.S. winner as Distributed Spectrum, which received $150,000 for its radio frequency sensing platform, which provides real-time intelligence on adversary activity.
According to Distributed Spectrum CEO Alex Wulff, the contest inspired the development and deployment of an attritable sensing capability to monitor the Indo-Pacific region.
The tech competition attracted 173 companies from across the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, highlighting the AUKUS countries’ strong defense innovation bases.
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