diff --git a/afterburn-5.11.0-0.dev.pr1251.el9.x86_64.rpm b/afterburn-5.11.0-0.dev.pr1251.el9.x86_64.rpm
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e996d5b5
Binary files /dev/null and b/afterburn-5.11.0-0.dev.pr1251.el9.x86_64.rpm differ
diff --git a/build-node-image.sh b/build-node-image.sh
index 00a6a618..95602ce8 100755
--- a/build-node-image.sh
+++ b/build-node-image.sh
@@ -37,6 +37,16 @@ mkdir -p /var/opt
 rpm-ostree experimental compose treefile-apply \
     --var "osversion=${ID}-${VERSION_ID}" /run/src/packages-openshift.yaml
 
+# --- DNM / PoC (coreos/afterburn#1251): replace afterburn with a prebuilt el9 RPM of
+# afterburn main, which includes "kubevirt: Support static gateway and DNS with DHCP".
+# (The @CoreOS/continuous COPR EL9/EL10 builds are currently broken, so the RPM is
+# vendored in this PR and bind-mounted at /run/src.) `override replace` swaps the base
+# afterburn, and the compose regenerates the initramfs, so the patched binary lands in
+# the initrd where afterburn-network-kargs runs. x86_64-only PoC.
+if [ "$(uname -m)" = x86_64 ]; then
+    rpm-ostree override replace /run/src/afterburn-5.11.0-0.dev.pr1251.el9.x86_64.rpm
+fi
+
 # cleanup any repo files we injected
 rm -f /etc/yum.repos.d/{ocp,git,okd}.repo