AFWERX in 2026: What Changed, Why It Matters, and How to Win

The AFWERX SBIR program looks different in 2026. The program is back after the reauthorization pause, funded through 2031, and awarding again. But the traditional Open Topic, the propose-anything entry point that made AFWERX the most accessible front door in defense innovation, is being replaced by something narrower. If your company has been planning its Air Force strategy around a fully open solicitation, that plan needs an update.

This isn’t bad news, though it may feel that way at first. The new model can actually improve your odds of turning an SBIR award into a real Air Force contract, which is the outcome that matters. This article walks through what changed, why the changes happened, how to compete under the new structure, and where AFWERX-style open topics still exist across the Department of War.

What Changed in the AFWERX SBIR Program in 2026

Three things changed: the SBIR program was reauthorized through 2031, AFWERX resumed solicitations in April 2026, and the traditional technology-agnostic Open Topic is being replaced by what AFWERX calls “Focused Open Topics.”

Here’s the timeline. SBIR program authority lapsed on September 30, 2025, when Congress failed to reauthorize the program on schedule. AFWERX paused new solicitations during the lapse. In spring 2026, the Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act reauthorized SBIR/STTR through fiscal year 2031, and AFWERX and SpaceWERX reopened solicitations in April. Companies that submitted to the final broad Open Topic before the pause weren’t left hanging. AFWERX awarded hundreds of those companies in May 2026 once authority was restored.

The bigger story is what came next. On an April 2026 webinar addressing the post-reauthorization program, AFWERX representatives said explicitly that they’re moving to a Focused Open Topic model. Instead of one solicitation where any company can propose any dual-use technology, AFWERX is releasing mission-driven subject areas built around specific capability gaps, where many different solutions can compete within the same defined gap. AFWERX has stated this approach will appear in every SBIR release of 2026 and is expected to carry forward.

In other words, AFWERX itself is on record: the propose-literally-anything version of the Open Topic is being replaced by a narrower, mission-tied version. Whether the broad Open Topic ever returns is impossible to know. For now, you shouldn’t hold your breath, and you shouldn’t build your 2026 strategy around it.

Why AFWERX Retired the Broad Open Topic

The broad Open Topic didn’t fail, it got outgrown. Understanding why AFWERX moved away from it helps explain why the new model isn’t a step backward for small businesses, so it’s worth a short history.

AFWERX introduced the Open Topic in 2018 as a low-friction entry point for commercial companies, especially nontraditional defense vendors, to test feasibility, prototype, and transition technology into operational Air Force use. Instead of responding to narrowly defined government topics, which can sometimes have predetermined awardees and are less competitive for new entrants, companies proposed their own dual-use solutions. For a startup with a commercial product and no defense experience, this was a fundamentally better model, and it worked. The government thought so too. In the 2022 SBIR reauthorization, Congress mandated that every agency include an open topic, modeled in theory on the AFWERX approach. In practice, few agencies executed it as well, which let AFWERX keep its unique position in the market.

But the model had a known weakness: volume without transition. Winning an Open Topic Phase I didn’t put you on a path to Phase II by default. To be eligible for Phase II, you had to secure a signed Memorandum of Understanding, later a Customer Memorandum, from an Air Force customer and end-user. That requirement did real filtering work, and it filtered out a lot of companies. Many Phase I winners were never able to land that signature. The company had proposed the problem, and the government had funded the exploration, but nobody on the government side owned the need.

And even getting the memo wasn’t a guarantee. Plenty of companies did everything right, secured their Customer Memorandum, and still missed out because there simply wasn’t enough funding to award every eligible company a Phase II. Award counts climbed at Phase I while transition outcomes drew scrutiny from oversight bodies. The math of the broad Open Topic left a lot of funded feasibility studies with nowhere to go.

Two more recent pressures accelerated the shift. Application volume surged, and some observers attribute part of that surge to generative AI making proposal drafting cheap, which strained the evaluation process the Open Topic depended on. Even before the reauthorization pause, AFWERX had been leaning more heavily on Specific Topic calls. Then the new SBIR bill added stricter commercialization benchmarks, requiring agencies to define and measure commercial impact and Phase III transition. A propose-anything solicitation is a hard place to enforce transition discipline. A solicitation built around a validated capability gap is not.

Seen that way, the Focused Open Topic isn’t a door closing. AFWERX has already proved it knows how to move companies from SBIR funding into programs of record. In fiscal year 2025 alone, the Department of the Air Force SBIR/STTR program reported 438 Phase III transitions valued at $8.1 billion, a 35% transition rate to Department of the Air Force customer funding. The shift to Focused Open Topics is AFWERX looking to do that even more efficiently without losing out on innovation, by restructuring its front door around the thing small businesses actually want: a government customer whose need is established before the award is made.

Why the Focused Open Topic Model Is Good News for Small Businesses

The Focused Open Topic model hands you something the broad Open Topic never did: confirmation that the Air Force actually wants what the topic describes, before you write a word. It isn’t a closed door, it’s a pre-qualified customer.

Think of it as the golden mean. On one end sit hyper-specific topics, where the government defines both the problem and the solution so narrowly that only a handful of companies can realistically compete. On the other end sat the wide-open “show me anything” Open Topic, where the market brought ideas and the Air Force sorted through them hoping demand would materialize later. Focused Open Topics are the middle path: the need is clear, but how to solve it is still open. Specific topics aren’t going away, because specific needs aren’t going away. But the Air Force learned not to restrict itself too much, because a service that only buys what it already knows how to describe can’t modernize at the speed of industry.

Under the fully open topic model, the burden of demand validation sat entirely on you. You proposed your technology, won a Phase I, and then spent the next few months chasing a signed Customer Memorandum from an end-user who may not have known they needed you. Under the new model, that sequence inverts. Each Focused Open Topic is built around a capability gap the Air Force has already named, which means the demand signal comes first and interest from stakeholders is established before the solicitation opens. Winning a Phase II no longer depends on whether you can convince an Air Force customer to sign a memo. The customer’s need is baked into the topic itself.

That doesn’t mean end-users stopped mattering. The opposite. It means your end-user research now starts from a much stronger position. The topic tells you what the Air Force needs. Your job is to figure out who owns that need, what their operational reality looks like, and how to shape your solution so it has the best chance of converting into a Phase III contract. That’s how we approach it for our clients at Grant Engine, and we’ve found it to be a highly effective way to work. Tailoring your proposal toward the end-user from day one sets up a natural progression toward Phase III, and that’s the point of the entire program. It always was. Focused Open Topics just let you spend your energy tailoring to a known need instead of guessing at one.

And “focused” is broader than it sounds. Take a current SpaceWERX topic, Commercial-Derived Insights for Novel Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Tracking (TacSRT) Capabilities. It seeks non-missile-warning sensing and analytic capabilities that leverage commercial space and ground assets, and it’s open to hardware, software, analytic tools, sensing concepts, data-processing architectures, and integrated workflows. Many different companies with many different approaches can compete inside that single gap. The Air Force isn’t asking you to guess its problem anymore. It’s stating the problem and letting the market bring solutions.

If you want help positioning your company for the new AFWERX model, or any other DoW opportunity, whether SBIR, STTR, or OTA, talk to our team at Grant Engine.

How to Approach AFWERX in 2026 and Win

Winning an AFWERX SBIR award in 2026 comes down to alignment: matching your technology to the capability gaps the Air Force has already named, then building your end-user story from there. The companies that struggle this year will be the ones still running the 2019 playbook, waiting for a propose-anything window that isn’t coming.

Start with the FY26 priorities. AFWERX groups its funding focus under four umbrella themes:

• Autonomous Mass. Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS), and weapons technology.
• Command, Control & Battle Management. Contested logistics, manufacturing and readiness, and Communications & Battle Management (C3BM).
• Counter Incursion. Advanced mission systems architecture and engineering, counter-UAS, and kinetic and non-kinetic defeat.
• Agile Combat & Readiness. The readiness and sustainment push that runs through the categories above.

On the Space Force side, SpaceWERX’s FY26 focus areas include:

• On-orbit space logistics.
• Defensive cyber operations.
• Cis-lunar space domain awareness.
• Novel sensing for ground and space.

If your technology maps to one of these areas, you have a live path into the program. If it doesn’t map cleanly, that’s a signal, not a stop sign.

Volume matters too, and AFWERX is only one door. New Focused Open Topics now appear on the Department of War’s monthly release schedule rather than in a few big annual windows, and similar opportunities run across the Army, Navy, and other agencies at the same time. Our approach for clients has always been that multiple submissions matter. One well-matched proposal is better than none, but a portfolio of well-matched proposals across services is what reliably builds a pipeline. To be clear, that isn’t spray and pray. With the new law requiring agencies to cap how many Phase I proposals a single company can submit each year, the volume game only works when every submission is backed by deep research into how your solution solves a challenge a specific end-user actually has. More shots on goal, each one aimed.

Then do the work that actually wins Phase IIIs. Once a topic tells you what the Air Force needs, your research shifts to who owns that need. Which program office, which command, which operators live with this gap daily? What does their current workaround look like? Shaping your proposal around that operational reality is what turns an SBIR award into a stepping stone instead of a dead end.

Here’s what we’d prioritize before your next submission:

• Map your technology to the FY26 themes. Be honest about fit. A forced mapping wastes a proposal slot, and proposal slots are becoming a finite resource under the new annual caps.
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• Set up monitoring for monthly releases. Track the DSIP portal and AFWERX channels so you see Focused Open Topics at pre-release, not at close. The pre-release window is when you can still ask questions and adjust.
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• Research the end-user before you write. Identify the likely customer behind the capability gap and build your solution narrative around their operational reality and transition path.
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• Expand your look beyond the Air Force. The Army and Navy are both pushing open-topic-style opportunities, DARPA runs its own SBIR topics, and when it’s appropriate, agencies outside the Department of War like NSF, NIH, and DOE fund the same deep tech. We cover the strongest alternatives below.
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• Audit your foreign ties now. The new law tightens disclosure around Foreign Countries of Concern, including venture backing and IP licenses. Review your cap table and key personnel before it becomes a problem mid-application.
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• Take cybersecurity expectations seriously, even with CMMC eased. The Department of War suspended its CMMC Phase II rollout in July 2026, so for now most contracts only require Level 1 or Level 2 self-assessment. But the underlying obligations to protect federal contract information and controlled unclassified information haven’t changed, and the department has signaled certification requirements will return in some reformed form. Building basic cyber hygiene now is cheaper than retrofitting it under a contract deadline.
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• Keep registrations current. SAM.gov, DSIP, and SBIR.gov profiles need to be active with an up-to-date UEI. It’s basic, but it’s also the easiest thing to get wrong under deadline pressure.

If you want help positioning your company for the new AFWERX model, or any other DoW opportunity, whether SBIR, STTR, or OTA, talk to our team at Grant Engine.

Bigger AFWERX Awards in 2026: Strategic Breakthrough, STRATFI/TACFI, and Direct to Phase II

The trade-off for fewer fully open doors is bigger money behind the doors that remain. The 2026 reauthorization raised the ceiling on what an SBIR-funded company can win, and AFWERX is positioned to implement the new mechanisms faster than most agencies.

The headline is the Strategic Breakthrough Award, a new initiative created by the reauthorization across SBIR programs, providing up to $30 million in sequential Phase II funding to bridge the gap between innovation and scale. The structure, based on what AFWERX outlined in its April 2026 post-reauthorization webinar: it builds on a previous Phase II, runs no more than 48 months, and requires 1:1 matching funds, with at least 20% of the match coming from Department of War funds outside the SBIR/STTR program. Applicants will also need market research showing a viable solution and a written commitment that follow-on funding is secured.

AFWERX has been clear that Strategic Breakthrough is not a replacement for STRATFI/TACFI. If you’re not familiar, STRATFI (Strategic Funding Increase) and TACFI (Tactical Funding Increase) are AFWERX’s existing supplemental funding programs that stack SBIR dollars with government and private matching funds to carry Phase II companies across the gap to Phase III, with the largest STRATFI packages reaching well into eight figures. Both continue to run alongside the new award.

Here’s why that matters for the Air Force specifically. Strategic Breakthrough closely resembles the STRATFI model AFWERX has operated for years, matching funds, transition focus, and all. Other agencies will be standing up this mechanism from scratch. AFWERX already has the muscle memory, which is a reasonable basis to expect it will field these awards sooner and run them more smoothly. If you’re a Phase II alum eyeing a $30M award, AFWERX is likely the fastest place to be standing when the implementation plan lands. The practical prep starts now: identifying matching fund partners, whether private venture capital or non-SBIR government funds, takes months, not weeks.

The reauthorization expands the smaller mechanisms too. Direct to Phase II, which lets companies with existing prototype maturity skip Phase I entirely, now extends to STTR awards as well as SBIR, opening a faster path for research-partnership companies that previously had to start at Phase I. Technical and Business Assistance (TABA) has been expanded, with coverage now extending to cybersecurity assistance and I-Corps training and eligibility extending to D2P2 and Strategic Breakthrough recipients. And funding that went unspent during the reauthorization lapse can be carried over, meaning the pause created pent-up resources rather than a hole.

The program’s scale isn’t shrinking either. AFWERX operates an annual budget of roughly $1.4 billion, and there’s no signal that number is headed anywhere but its normal growth path. The money is there. What changed is how deliberately it’s being aimed.

Open Topic Opportunities Beyond AFWERX: Army, Navy, and the Rest of DoD

The AFWERX-style open topic didn’t die, it spread. The 2022 reauthorization required every agency to include open topics modeled on the AFWERX approach, and while execution was uneven for years, other services have been closing the gap just as AFWERX narrows its own front door. If your technology doesn’t map cleanly to the Air Force’s FY26 themes, one of these programs may fit better.

The Department of War as a whole came out of the reauthorization pause aggressively. SBIR/STTR offices across the department released 98 topics in the first 24 hours after the bill was signed, and there are now hundreds of active topics across the Army, Navy, Air Force, and defense agencies, refreshed on a monthly release schedule.

• Army SBIR is leaning into open-topic-style competition. The Army runs its topic releases through Army Futures Command across three annual solicitation periods plus the monthly DoD cycles, and it has built an entry ramp AFWERX never had: the xTech prize competitions. Current example: xTech|Inversion awards up to $1 million in cash prizes, with finalists pitching directly to Army and DoW subject matter experts, and winners becoming eligible to submit for a Phase I worth up to $300,000. You get paid to compete, and the competition itself builds the customer relationships that SBIR proposals need. For companies further along, the Army SBIR CATALYST program accelerates high-potential prototypes toward fielding with enhanced funding up to $15 million and structured partnerships between small businesses, Army transition sponsors, and integrators.
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• Navy SBIR is running fully open topics for defined problems. The Navy’s FY26 releases have included open topics where the problem is named but the solution space is wide open. A recent example: an open topic for counter-unmanned air systems, open to any credible C-UAS approach. Commands like NAVWAR run their own open topics seeking broad solution categories rather than point solutions. The structure looks a lot like where AFWERX is heading: a defined naval problem, an open field of approaches.
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• DARPA encourages a wide solution range through platforms like ERIS. DARPA’s ERIS open call accepts submissions on revolutionary technologies across broad topic areas on a rolling basis, assessed monthly, with a rapid Other Transaction-based acquisition pathway. The key distinction is the maturity of the technology, not the company. Your business can be early-stage or established, but DARPA is looking for earlier-stage tech with real technical risk still on the table, which makes it a better fit for breakthroughs that aren’t ready for an operational customer than for finished products seeking a buyer..
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• Look outside the Department of War when it fits. NSF, NIH, and DOE fund the same deep tech through SBIR, and while they offer far less Phase III contracting than defense agencies, the new $30M Strategic Breakthrough Award extends to them too. NSF has already announced a Strategic Breakthrough tier in its relaunched program. And NASA and DHS are worth a hard look: both have real operational needs and real contracting power, which means real Phase III pathways.

The Bottom Line on AFWERX SBIR in 2026

Here’s the whole picture in one place. The AFWERX SBIR program is reauthorized through 2031 and funded at roughly $1.4 billion a year. The traditional propose-anything Open Topic has been replaced in every 2026 release by Focused Open Topics, mission-driven solicitations where the Air Force names the capability gap and leaves the solution open. Winning a Phase II no longer hinges on you sourcing a Customer Memorandum, because demand is validated before the topic is released, but end-user research matters as much as ever for reaching Phase III. The awards are getting bigger, with the new $30 million Strategic Breakthrough Award joining STRATFI/TACFI and an expanded Direct to Phase II. And the open topic model AFWERX pioneered now runs across the Army, Navy, and DARPA, which means more total opportunity across the Department of War, not less.

That’s why, despite AFWERX retiring the Open Topic, we’re excited about where DoW SBIR is going. AFWERX didn’t close, it focused. The agencies that were historically locked into hyper-specific topics have opened up considerably. The companies that win in this environment will be the ones that treat the whole federal SBIR landscape as one portfolio, and that portfolio approach is what we do at Grant Engine: helping defense, dual-use, life science, space, and energy companies find, win, and manage non-dilutive funding across SBIR/STTR, OTAs, and other federal programs, at a win rate two to four times the national average.

If you want help positioning your company for the new AFWERX model, or any other DoW opportunity, whether SBIR, STTR, or OTA, talk to our team at Grant Engine.

AFWERX SBIR FAQ for 2026

Is the AFWERX Open Topic coming back

Nobody knows, including AFWERX. What’s on the record is that Focused Open Topics have replaced the traditional Open Topic in every 2026 release, and AFWERX expects the approach to carry forward. There’s been no announcement of a permanent discontinuation, but there’s also no signal of a return. Plan your 2026 strategy around the focused model, and treat any future broad Open Topic as a bonus if it reappears.

Do I still need a Customer Memorandum to win an AFWERX Phase II?

Under the Focused Open Topic model, your Phase II eligibility no longer depends on securing a signed Customer Memorandum the way it did under the fully open topic. The demand is validated in the topic itself. That said, end-user engagement still strengthens a proposal and remains the foundation of any real Phase III strategy, so don’t read this as permission to skip customer discovery. Read it as the government doing the first step for you.

I have an active Phase I or Phase II. Does any of this affect my award?

No. Existing awards continued through the reauthorization pause and are unaffected by the structural changes. The new rules shape new solicitations, not contracts already in place. If you’re mid-Phase II, your most important move is positioning for what comes next: STRATFI/TACFI, a Strategic Breakthrough Award, or a Phase III.

What’s the difference between a Strategic Breakthrough Award and STRATFI?

Both stack matching funds on top of SBIR dollars to scale Phase II companies, but they’re separate mechanisms. STRATFI is AFWERX’s established supplemental funding program. Strategic Breakthrough is the new congressionally mandated award, up to $30 million in sequential Phase II funding with a 1:1 match requirement, at least 20% of which must come from Department of War funds outside the SBIR program. AFWERX has said explicitly that Strategic Breakthrough does not replace STRATFI/TACFI. Both will run.

Do I need CMMC certification to apply for AFWERX SBIR in 2026?

Not currently. The Department of War suspended its CMMC Phase II rollout in July 2026, and for now most contracts require only Level 1 or Level 2 self-assessment. But the obligation to protect federal contract information and controlled unclassified information never went away, and certification requirements are expected to return in reformed shape. Building basic cyber hygiene now is far cheaper than scrambling under a contract deadline later.

My technology doesn’t fit the FY26 focus areas. Am I locked out of SBIR funding?

No, you’re just looking at the wrong door. The Army, Navy, and DARPA all run open-topic-style opportunities, and agencies outside the Department of War, including NSF, NIH, DOE, NASA, and DHS, fund the same deep tech through their own SBIR programs. New AFWERX topics also appear monthly, so a miss today isn’t a miss all year. The right response to a bad fit is a wider search, not a forced proposal.

If you want help positioning your company for the new AFWERX model, or any other DoW opportunity, whether SBIR, STTR, or OTA, talk to our team at Grant Engine.