US Army revises RFID policy

Cryptone.

This case was initiated at the request of the Office of Logistics and Materiel Readiness at the Office of the Secretary of Defence to revise the supplement, to clarify that the RFID requirement pertains solely to 'passive RFID'.

NCMA says, as the use of passive RFID technology continues to expand and additional DoD sites gain the capability to use RFID identifier tags, the supplement's regulations associated with passive RFID are being proposed for complementary updates.

The NCMA report says the supplement is being renamed and revised to clarify that the DoD RFID requirement relates solely to 'passive RFID'.

The current supplement lists approximately 20 specific DoD activity addresses and provides the authority for using other 'ship-to' locations outside the US under certain circumstances.

According to Defence Industry Daily, the US military has a vast store of supplies and equipment around the world. Keeping track of all that stuff has always been a challenge. During World War II, the US Army kept track of equipment using IBM punch cards and electric accounting machines (EAMs).

It says today RFID tags have replaced punch cards and RFID readers and computers have replaced EAMs. The RFID tags work like wireless bar codes that record, track, and manage the supplies and equipment of a modern networked military.