In the rapidly evolving landscape of defense technology, digital engineering has emerged as a key driver of innovation and efficiency. Driven by numerous cost overruns, delays, and performance concerns (e.g., F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), Zumwalt-class Destroyer, and the Ford-class Aircraft Carrier), the Department of Defense (DoD) sees digital engineering as a way to manage costs and improve the delivery of weapons systems. As outlined in the DoD’s digital engineering strategy, the adoption of integrated digital approaches is crucial for improving acquisition and performance of defense systems across their life cycles.
Amidst this technological shift, blockchain technology stands out as a potential linchpin for securing information transfers between various stakeholders in the digital engineering process. This blog post explores how blockchain can be strategically applied to reinforce digital engineering within the defense sector, aligning with DoD policies and guidelines.
Understanding Digital Engineering in the Defense Sector
Digital engineering is an integrated approach that uses authoritative sources of system data and models as a continuum across disciplines to support lifecycle activities from concept through disposal. The DoD’s strategic emphasis on digital engineering aims to foster innovation, increase agility, and enhance the security of critical defense systems. DoD’s 2018 Digital Engineering Strategy (codified in 2023’s Instruction 5000.97 Digital Engineering Strategy and separate strategy and guidance for the US Navy, Air Force, and Space Force) outline a comprehensive approach to transform the department’s engineering practices. The strategy emphasizes the integration of digital technologies, processes, and tools to create a collaborative and efficient environment for the design, development, and lifecycle management of defense systems. Specifically, the five key goals of the Digital Engineering Strategy are:
- Formalize the development, integration, and use of models to inform enterprise and program decision making.
- Provide an enduring, authoritative source of truth (ASOT).
- Incorporate technological innovation to improve the engineering practice.
- Establish a supporting infrastructure and environment to perform activities, collaborate, and communicate across stakeholders.
- Transform the culture and workforce to adopt and support digital engineering across the lifecycle.
SIMBA Chain (SIMBA) believes that blockchain is a vital enabler for digital engineering technologies and is critical to achieving DoD’s vision of using digital technology to improve overall readiness and cost effectiveness.
Blockchain: The Security Backbone of Digital Engineering
In the last year, SIMBA has been working closely with the DoD and the armed services to support this strategy by developing tools for securing the transfer of digital information within the defense product life cycle and creating a secure, tamperproof method of data transfer that creates an ASOT and shows the provenance of information. Working closely with a number of defense agencies and key actors in the defense industrial base (DIB), we have created a number of solutions that allow for frictionless and secure transfer of high-value information exchange that produces an ASOT. We have achieved this by harnessing the power of blockchain technology and the advanced cryptographical and tamperproof protections it guarantees.
Blockchain technology offers a decentralized and immutable ledger system, ideal for the secure sharing of information across complex networks that include multiple stakeholders. In the context of digital engineering, where seamless and secure data transfer is paramount, our technology provides several critical benefits:
- Enhanced Security: Blockchain's inherent characteristics—such as cryptographic hashing and consensus mechanisms—ensure that data cannot be altered once recorded. This is crucial for maintaining the integrity of design documents, project timelines, and other sensitive information that circulate in a digital engineering ecosystem.
- Increased Transparency: While enhancing security, blockchain also offers transparency. Each transaction on the blockchain is visible to all parties and cannot be changed, creating an environment of trust and accountability among all actors involved in the engineering process.
- Improved Traceability: Blockchain can trace the origins of data and its evolution over time. This feature is invaluable in digital engineering, where understanding the pedigree of design data and its modifications is necessary for compliance, auditing, and quality control.
- Reduced Costs and Increased Efficiency: By streamlining the data transfer processes and reducing the intermediaries, blockchain can lead to significant reductions in time and cost. This efficiency is vital for the DoD, where speeding up the delivery of technologically advanced systems is often a priority.
A Strategic Path Forward
The integration of blockchain technology into digital engineering processes represents a forward-thinking approach to enhancing the security and efficiency of defense projects. For business development managers and government officials, it is crucial to understand both the capabilities of blockchain and the strategic priorities of the DoD in digital engineering. By aligning blockchain implementations with these priorities, the defense sector can safeguard sensitive, high-value data transfers and streamline project workflows, thereby achieving greater technological sovereignty and operational readiness.
As we continue to explore the convergence of emerging technologies with established government strategies, the role of blockchain in digital engineering remains a compelling topic for further research and implementation. Defense industry leaders should consider pilot projects or partnerships with blockchain developers to test and refine this technology in a controlled environment, ensuring that it meets the unique requirements of national security and defense.
