The U.S. Navy launches SIMBA chain research to track the lifecycle data of fighter jet parts.

The United States Navy Command is currently exploring the potential of blockchain technology in tracking aircraft parts.

According to a report, the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) is investigating whether blockchain can more effectively and cost-efficiently track the lifecycle of parts. NAVAIR explained:

Understanding the source and provenance of military aircraft components is a resource-intensive process that significantly increases our operational costs.

For a military fighter jet, the number of parts involved is substantial, and given the high value and extreme security requirements of fighter jets, ensuring the source of each part is crucial, especially considering that the U.S. military has more than just one fighter jet.

The current system involves tracking items post-delivery using paper contracts and manually recording them in databases. However, the Naval Aviation Enterprise is exploring transitioning to a permissioned blockchain to record and track using blockchain in the future.

To do so, NAVAIR's team is collaborating with Indiana-based technology and manufacturing company ITAMCO to utilize the SIMBA blockchain-as-a-service platform developed jointly with DARPA - the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

According to the SIMBA chain protocol, it can quickly and securely trace large datasets.

However, there are still some challenges to overcome. This distributed supply chain will increase vulnerability to external attacks, making cybersecurity a key focus area. The Navy command stated:

We hope to bring experts together and develop possible initial architectures so that authorities can better understand the risks and rewards of connecting distributed systems.

Finally, the research team believes that through the transparency and traceability of blockchain systems, this study will achieve a more secure and cost-effective system.

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