The issue of cybersecurity is closely related to military organizations around the world. So secure communication is an example of how military blockchain applications are demonstrating their potential.

The ability to transmit secure communications between units is one of the fundamental requirements for any military organization. Today, cybersecurity is widely considered within the armed forces. That’s why decentralized ledgers, smart contracts and related technologies offer interesting opportunities to solve problems within the military space.

Blockchain Military Applications

Air Force:

So far, every war drone has needed a human operator. But the convergence of AI, blockchain and drone technology creates tremendous possibilities. For example, the IA can power autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles. They can fly completely independently, without any intervention or control required by a human being.

With blockchain, data collected by unmanned aircraft powered by IA can be recorded immutably and in real time. Flight decisions and actions taken by the drone can also be recorded. With every drone operating as part of a decentralized network, then if it is destroyed later, anything it has collected or done would still be recorded on the blockchain.

Navy:

The battleships are equipped with weapons of different fire powers, such as missile launchers, torpedo launchers and anti-aircraft batteries. In the face of enemy fire, all these weapons must work together perfectly. Warships from many countries, including the US, Japan and Spain rely on the Aegis Combat System.

Although used for more than 50 years, the Aegis is an important piece of military technology. It uses a complex system of radars and powerful computers to make decisions in fractions of a second. It controls the deployment of weapons, deciding when and in what direction to fire, in response to threats in fractions of a second. But it has one crucial weakness: it’s a centralized system; It takes down the Aegis, and you can take down the ship. This is where blockchain is planned to enter soon.

Additive Manufacturing:

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is the military term for 3D printing. It is believed that AM has not achieved adoption in all supply chains is due to the absence of a Digital Thread.

A digital thread consists of: 1. The indefinite ability to store and reference data, 2. The means to identify if a design does not work properly or needs improvement, 3. And the scalability to advance the production process, applying process improvements using data collected at each previous step.

The US Navy has already seen the potential that blockchain can bring to AM processes. Since 2017, it has committed to integrating blockchain into every step of an AM operation. The use of a decentralized network in this way meets the requirements of the digital thread. Provides secure and theoretically unlimited data storage. It also allows data sharing throughout the AM process using the network nodes.

Adoption

Lockheed Martin is the defense supplier that makes the Aegis. In 2017, it partnered with Guardtime Federal, which was formed in 2014 to exclusively support cybersecurity and related requirements of the US Department of Defense.

The partnership has enabled us to incorporate blockchain into our supply chain risk management, software development and systems engineering processes. Lockheed Martin is the first US defense contractor to implement blockchain technology.

There are likely to be other areas where blockchain can add value, some of which may not be revealed to civilians. Blockchain adoption is gaining ground in many different sectors. It’s inevitable that military organizations around the world will want to make sure they stay ahead of the curve with blockchain.