MilChain-UAV: A Blockchain-Based UAV Network Traffic Control Framework for Military Operations

Abstract

The growing deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in military operations necessitates a secure, scalable, and decentralized approach to airspace management. This paper introduces MilChain-UAV, a blockchain-based traffic control framework tailored for military UAV networks. Built on PureChain, a custom permissioned blockchain network, MilChain-UAV supports autonomous mission governance, real-time path validation, and decentralized collision avoidance. To optimize blockchain efficiency while ensuring auditability, telemetry data is stored off-chain using IPFS, with only the cryptographic hashes anchored on-chain. By replacing centralized controllers with a distributed ledger, the framework enhances resilience against jamming and spoofing while enabling dynamic routing and verifiable behavior logging. Experimentation results demonstrate MilChain- UA V's effectiveness in improving efficiency and scalability in critical military operations, providing a robust solution for autonomous and secure management of military UAV traffic.