The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) can’t afford to lose the military blockchain race according to a new white paper by Amazon Web Services, IBM, Deloitte and others. Organized by the Value Technology Foundation think tank and co-authored by a smattering of private sector tech companies, consultancies and blockchain firms, the briefing offers a sobering analysis of where the DoD is in relation to Russia and China.

“The two superpowers that pose the greatest threat to the U.S. are both heavily investing in both the research and development of blockchain technology,” the briefing said: China’s on the “economic warfare” offensive with its digital currency. Russia is on defense with a lab dedicated to blockchain cyber threat mitigation.

The U.S. needs to similarly bootstrap its blockchain and DLT warfighter readiness, and it stands to benefit as soon as it does, the briefing said. In addition to AWS, IBM and Deloitte, the paper was written by Accenture, CGI Federal, ConsenSys, SIMBA Chain and Colvin Run Networks.

Blockchain could broadly assist the military in everything from supply chains security, weapon systems development to stopping data breaches. It could also bolster command and control mechanisms and add transparency and auditability to the military’s massive procurement machine.

“Just as the DoD found a way to build new applications and make distributed systems possible on the Internet, blockchain enables new capabilities by offering a layer of trust that the DoD can apply to improve its procurement process,” the report said.

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