Lockheed Martin to Use Blockchain For Operations

Lockheed Martin is joining the blockchain train. The aerospace and security company announced it has become the first U.S. defense contractor to incorporate blockchain technology into its development processes. 

Lockheed has signed a contract with cybersecurity firm Guardtime Federal, which will integrate blockchain into Lockheed’s supply chain risk management, systems engineering, and software development processes using their Federal Core blockchain infrastructure and Black Lantern appliances.

“These new cyber security approaches will enhance data integrity, speed problem discovery, and mitigation, and reduce the volume of regression testing, which results in reduced schedule risk,” said Ron Bessire, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics’ Engineering and Technology vice president. “The faster our developers can discover issues, the faster we can deliver.”  

In September 2016, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded a $1.8 million contract to Guardtime Federal to advance the state of formal verification tools and all blockchain-based integrity monitoring systems. The Department of Homeland Security is also making efforts to research and explore blockchain technology. Earlier this year, the DHS underlined blockchain technology as “an innovative leap forward that has many uses and applications across multiple sectors of the economy” and confirmed its continuing research and development of blockchain technology.

Guardtime Federal has been providing security assessments to Lockheed Martin since 2015. Together, Guardtime Federal and Lockheed have been developing a concept they call Cyber Aware Systems Engineering. Lockheed Martin stated that they are committed to exploring non-traditional approaches and technologies to incorporate cybersecurity into its business.

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Blockchain technology and use cases

Case studies: supply chain analytics