The U.S. Air Force pays the Blockchain company $ 1,5 million to build a supply chain network

The U.S. Air Force pays the Blockchain company $ 1,5 million to build a supply chain network - Simba Chain 1024x514SIMBA Chain, a blockchain services company with deep ties to the Department of Defense, has two years and $ 1,5 million to research and develop a blockchain for U.S. aviation supply chain logistics.

Anticipating weaknesses in the supply chain

South Bend, Ind. Said on Monday it entered Phase II of its USAF project for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) with a new mandate to work on the most promising proposals regarding the Air Force blockchain supply chain. .

It has also acquired a new partner: Boeing (discover the quotation). SIMBA CEO Joel Neidig said his company will create a node with Hyperledger Fabric at Oklahoma's Tinker Air Force Base - an aviation supply chain logistics hub - with a focus on managing the Risk: Knowing what, where, who and how of pieces that might one day go through the $ 62 billion USAF purchase machine.

This means anticipating and identifying areas of the supply chain that could someday collapse. The blockchain could help protect the parties by documenting every relevant data point, a key feature for those responsible for purchasing the Armed Forces, according to Neidig.

“Inside the army they are also thinking about how people share data, where they come from, what else they are connected to. They think about all the things that can go wrong and that's where blockchain can come in, "he said.

The Blockchain in Aviation

SIMBA Chain has been researching blockchain on behalf of the military since it received seed funding for an encrypted chat app from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 2017. Since then, the platform, an Indiana Technology and Manufacturing Companies project, has entered into several SBIR contracts with the Navy and Air Force.

The company has become a supporter of the use of blockchain in the military supply chain, a vast network with thousands of billions of dollars components that move across dozens of borders every day.

Last month, SIMBA Chain co-wrote a private sector white paper that welcomed blockchain-enhanced supply chains. The need for USAF to securely track its billion dollar network has become more complex with the introduction of additive manufacturing.

Commonly known as 3D printing, this technology promises to allow military personnel to print anything they might need during the service, according to Jeffrey Slayton, director of Special Programs, Strategy and Policy at the USAF.

Preventing technology problems

The SIMBA Chain could also help the military to overcome the problems that could arise with the advent of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, which can draw analysis from reams of data, assuming that the data is legitimate, said Neidigl.

Here's where the blockchain can fit. "We are providing that level of trust, data integrity," said Neidigl. "We need to have an excellent base of reliable transactions before we start entering data into artificial intelligence."