NATO, together with the Ukrainian authorities, has announced a competition for private developers to create technologies intended to reliably disable rear bases of Russian aviation. Participants are being offered €250,000 for such solutions, The War Zone reported.

The program is called the Airfield Denial Challenge. Its goal is to find innovative systems capable of blocking the operation of Russian airfields and depriving tactical aviation of the ability to launch strikes from protected rear bases.

NATO’s Allied Command Transformation said the experience of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has shown that Russia’s ability to use aviation from protected rear airfields remains one of the key asymmetric advantages in the current conflict. It also acknowledged that existing means of attack, including artillery and drones, have limited effectiveness against protected facilities, including because of insufficient resistance to electronic warfare.

The organizers are looking for autonomous solutions that can operate without GPS and affect multiple targets at the same time. Possible options include drone swarms and hybrid systems, but the main requirement is readiness for rapid deployment. Projects that require more than a year to implement will not be considered.

Applications are due to close on July 20. Ten finalists are expected to be selected on August 11, while the demonstration of the projects is tentatively scheduled for September 3 in Poland.

At the same time, experts doubt that the competition will quickly produce a weapon capable of sharply changing the situation. One of the main problems is Kiev’s limited capacity for mass production of complex equipment.