AFWERX is how the Department of the Air Force does business with startups, non-traditionals, and small businesses. It's organized as a directorate inside the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). SpaceWERX is the same idea for the US Space Force. If you're a hardware founder and you've heard 'you should look at defense money,' this is usually what people mean.
Both agencies run their service's SBIR and STTR programs — the federal small-business R&D contracts — plus a layer of programs on top: Open Topic, challenges, the STRATFI/TACFI transition tools, and specialized efforts like SpaceWERX's Orbital Prime for in-space servicing. Since 2020, AFWERX alone reports awarding thousands of SBIR/STTR contracts worth billions of dollars.
Three reasons. First, the money is non-dilutive — it's a contract, not equity. Second, Open Topic means you don't have to wait for the government to ask for your exact idea. Third, a government contract is a credibility signal that helps with private investors, which matters enormously for the matched-money transition programs.
AFWERX and SpaceWERX don't invent the SBIR and STTR programs — those are decades-old, government-wide small-business R&D programs run by many agencies. What the Air and Space Force did was wrap those programs in a founder-friendly layer: the Open Topic model, faster pitch-and-award cycles, and the AFVentures transition tools that connect government dollars to private capital. That combination is why so much defense-tech venture activity now orbits these two agencies specifically.
One thing to watch: SBIR/STTR authority lapsed on September 30, 2025, and the programs went dark for six months before being reauthorized in April 2026 through 2031. Solicitation timing for 2026 is still settling into a new rhythm, and the reauthorization added both a new $30M award tier and tighter foreign-ownership screening. If you're planning around a specific window, confirm it directly rather than assuming last year's schedule holds.
Most of what these agencies fund is physics-heavy hardware — the kind of work engineering simulation is built to de-risk.
See if you qualify for an Ansys eval The MVP playbook →The path runs Phase I (feasibility) to Phase II (prototype) to the transition tools (TACFI, STRATFI, and now the $30M Strategic Breakthrough) toward Phase III. Each rung asks for more proof. To go deeper, read how to apply to Open Topic and STRATFI vs TACFI.
Official homes: afwerx.com and spacewerx.us.
Official sources: AFWERX · SpaceWERX · AFWERX on Wikipedia. Figures change; confirm on the official page before relying on them.
