Constellation Network Receives SBIR Phase II Contract From US Air Force

Constellation Network, a San Francisco-based big data and blockchain company, announced today the receipt of a phase II SBIR contract award with the United States Air Force (USAF).

Transitioning from the Phase I contract secured by Constellation in 2019, the new agreement aims to fund the ongoing development and deployment of an end-to-end blockchain solution that secures exchanging mission data with commercial partners across the Defense Transportation System (DTS).

In cooperation with Kinnami Software Corporation, Constellation will provide a highly performant protocol standard and a more secure alternative to the HTTP premium connector.

This alliance leverages blockchain encryption and data management capabilities to ensure security for DoD big data pipelines alongside the rails to be fully integrated with Air Force constituents.

Furthermore, it provides a zero-trust approach to secure distributed data management by combining a blockchain solution and a resilient storage platform. In doing so, the collaboration provides a robust framework — from data creation and collection to transferability and storage – that avoids the inherent problems with centralized systems.

Using their distributed protocol, called Hypergraph Transfer Protocol (HGTP), Constellation is transforming the military’s digital infrastructure. Today’s announcement appears to be a further step in that direction as the working relationship involves USTRANSCOM, Air Mobility Command (AMC), AMC’s 618 Air Operations Center (AOC), and a representative Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) partner.

The Federal Government can also rely on Constellation to access the network and use its native currency $DAG to secure bandwidth, the press release reads.

More specifically, the combined solution will act as a standard to the decentralized security that will support the merging of Air Force data to provide an immutable audit trail and easy status tracking.

The agreement between these parties also helps in consolidating insights through the USAF’s multiple data sources, including drones, satellites, and planes. The sensitive inputs received from these sources are mostly manual and disconnected because of the multi-domain command and control (MDC2) system at the US Air Force.

Constellation’s protocol hosts validated data and is also accessible via an API. As developer tools can be integrated into the development workflow, Constellation leverages the resilience of the blockchain network to seamlessly integrate with compatible architectures. As such, it delivers data assurance and auditable security for operational datasets without changes to existing IT infrastructure.

A landmark milestone

Commenting on the news, Benjamin Diggles, Constellation’s Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder, said:

“In the last few years, blockchain technology has become very attractive to enterprise organizations with its promise to deliver more efficiency and security for numerous use cases, including supply chain management. Due to slow and costly networks, the adoption of blockchain has been very lackluster. This contract opens the door to bigger, more critical uses of blockchain for data protection in a global digital infrastructure, bringing forth the true promises of the core technology.”

“Securing sensitive data has become an increasing challenge for most enterprises. In the defense sector, protecting data is critical to saving lives, successful mission outcomes, and ensuring national security. Ensuring trust and integrity in the data provides an important additional level of operational confidence. Kinnami is thrilled to be collaborating with Constellation to jointly bring to the 618 AOC a best-in-class distributed data management and security platform to enable secure and trustworthy collaboration with external mission partners.”

added Sujeesh Krishnan, CEO at Kinnami.

This contract with the USAF is not only good for Constellation’s business, but also a huge step for the entire blockchain industry when it comes to the legitimation and adoption of its ecosystem.

It also points towards further growth and use cases as the crypto technology is no longer just about making money through speculative investments, but also starting to be beneficial for national security and military efficiencies.