Harvard Trio Transforms Electronic Warfare With AI-Powered Radio Detection

Three Harvard engineering graduates are revolutionizing electronic warfare with technology that gives soldiers unprecedented awareness of radio frequency threats on the battlefield. Distributed Spectrum, founded by Alex Wulff, Ben Harpe and Isaac Struhl, recently secured $25 million in Series A funding led by Conviction, Shield Capital, and tech entrepreneur Nat Friedman.

The New York-based startup has already won $7 million in contracts from the Department of Defense and intelligence agencies, creating radio frequency detection technology that impressed retired Army General Stanley McChrystal, who now advises and invests in the company.

Distributed Spectrum’s sensors — some weighing under a pound and roughly the size of stacked cocktail napkins — combine commercial hardware with proprietary AI algorithms that automatically identify signals and determine their origin. This offers critical battlefield intelligence without requiring specialized signal intelligence officers.

The company’s solutions are already deployed in Ukraine, helping frontline forces identify threats in a conflict dominated by radio-dependent technologies like drones, cell phones, and remote-controlled weapons.

With COO Ben Harpe’s strategic experience and CTO Isaac Struhl’s machine learning expertise, Distributed Spectrum aims to democratize radio intelligence across military applications — from soldier-portable devices that alert for approaching drones to comprehensive networks monitoring electromagnetic activity across wide areas.