How the U.S. Air Force’s DiBaT Initiative is Using Blockchain to Build Trust and Transparency
Financial transparency has become as mission-critical as operational readiness, especially as the U.S. Air Force (USAF) navigates billions in annual budgets across commands, programs, and vendors — a monumental task complicated by the constraints of legacy systems.
These systems, built for an earlier generation of financial oversight, often struggle to deliver real-time visibility into where funds are spent, how efficiently they’re used, and whether they achieve their intended impact. The result? Gaps in accountability, delayed reporting, and exposure to fraud, waste, and abuse .
Recognizing that true transparency requires technological innovation, the Air Force partnered with SIMBA Chain under a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to develop the Digital Blockchain Budget Accountability and Tracking (DiBaT) platform — a first-of-its-kind system using blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), and graph analytics to ensure that every dollar tells its story.
