U.S. Navy Awards SIMBA Chain $1.5 Mln Contract To Develop Blockchain Solution

The U.S. Office of Navy Research has awarded a $1.5 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contract to SIMBA Chain to design and build a blockchain solution to enable demand sensing for the Defense Logistics Agency, the combat support and supply chain agency of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

SIMBA Chain is a cloud-based, blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) platform. Demand sensing is essential to ensuring the U.S. military has critical replacement parts for the various weaponry it has, when required.

The award follows a SBIR Phase I project awarded in June 2020 during which SIMBA Chain worked with the U.S. Marine Corp to define a use case for a blockchain-based prototype to monitor the inventory and movement of physical assets at its Albany, Georgia Depot.

Under the current contract dubbed ALAMEDA Project, which commenced from January 6, 2021, SIMBA Chain will further build out the prototype developed in Phase I, working in tandem with the Naval Enterprise Sustainment Technology Team (NESTT) on a use case centered on the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet supply chain.

Joining SIMBA Chain in the ALAMEDA Project as a subcontractor is the University of Notre Dame.

The project will be conducted at the Fleet Readiness Center Southeast (FRCSE) at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida, one of eight fleet readiness centers commissioned by the U.S. Navy and one of just three that perform maintenance on the F/A-18 Hornet.

SIMBA Chain will work with NESTT and the FRCSE to manage and secure military supply chains and to ensure readiness to thwart cyber and physical threats.

This contract focuses on using blockchain to dramatically improve vital supply chain interactions between FRCSE and the Defense Logistics Agency to mitigate against disruption, issues, and threats to engineering and maintenance operations.

Over the last two years, SIMBA Chain has been awarded and successfully completed multiple contracts with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Defense.

In May2020, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) awarded a $200,000 contract to Simba Chain to develop a proof-of-concept blockchain-based system to improve the integration, security, auditability, and controlled access of sensitive federal research and development (R&D) data.

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