SimbaChain awarded $9.5 million contract with Naval Air Warfare Center
SIMBA Chain has been awarded a five-year Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase III contract (N68335-20-F-0012) from the Naval Air Warfare Center in San Diego, Cal., to deploy a secure, blockchain-based messaging and transaction platform, a critical need of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The $9.5 million award is the first and one of the largest SBIR Phase III for blockchain.
The sole-source, non-compete SBIR Phase III contract is categorized as a Basic Ordering Agreement with a Delivery Order. SIMBA Chain has completed Phases of an earlier SBIR award, during which they created a model decentralized messaging and transaction platform mapped to DoD constructs and tested a working prototype. In Phase III, SIMBA Chain will focus on commercialization and full-scale implementation of the platform.
SIMBA Chain’s cloud-based blockchain platform will meet a primary objective to rapidly provide NAVWAR, communication system hardware and software, modernization and sustainment capabilities for both land and sea assets that play a role in undersea systems communication by connecting the Blockchain Fabric from seabed to space. This RDT&E support includes a customized Distributed Ledger Technology for secure messaging, research of supply chain and logistics, evaluation of engineering, life-cycles, software and modernization, and financial transactions. Blockchain provides Navy / non-Navy federal organizations with data gathering and evaluation, technical integration engineering support, research for integration plan documentation, financial management evaluation. This project will facilitate increased velocity and breadth of communication among partners in the Naval Sea and Aviation Enterprise. Sharing technical and provenance information between stakeholders in a trusted and secure environment.
SIMBA Chain CEO Joel Neidig says his company is excited to be one of the first blockchain solutions providers to the U.S. military, beginning with deploying blockchain at full scale with the Navy. “This is a win not just for SIMBA and our partners, but also for the DoD, which has pursued with single-minded focus, a solution to conduct sensitive, mission-critical operations in a manner that is immutable and non-refutable. We plan to deliver a ‘bulletproof’ platform that meets all objectives.”
SIMBA Chain runs on Microsoft Azure. Tom Keane, Corporate Vice President, Azure Global at Microsoft Corp. added, “We’re supporting the DoD’s vision and SIMBA Chain’s expertise through Microsoft Azure’s vast cloud infrastructure and ability to scale globally, quickly, reliably and securely. Microsoft Azure leads the industry with over 90 compliance offerings, meeting a broad set of international and industry-specific regulatory standards. Advancing the implementation of the Navy’s messaging platform presents a unique opportunity to transform the industry surrounding sensitive information at a time when data security is paramount.”
SIMBA Chain was established in 2017 as the result of a grant awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to the University of Notre Dame Center for Research Computing and ITAMCO to develop a secure, unhackable messaging and transaction platform for the U.S. military. SIMBA Chain’s cloud-based, smart contract-as-a-service (SCaaS) platform enables users, developers, government, and enterprises to quickly develop and deploy blockchain dapps for iOS, Android, and the web.
