U.S. Army launches $20 million asset visibility project

The U.S. Army has awarded a $20 million contract to ARINC Engineering Services and Impeva Labs to develop and demonstrate prototypes that integrate wireless communications and automatic identification technology (AIT) to help track Department of Defense (DoD) assets worldwide.

The projet, dubbed Next Generation Wireless Communications (NGWC) for Logistics Applications, focuses on developing an AIT device that integrates multiple wireless communications technologies, is mesh-network capable, sensor supporting, and integrates with the existing DoD fixed active radio frequency identification (RFID) infrastructure, while also operating globally, independent of the fixed nodal infrastructure.

This satellite, cellular and wireless project will augment the current capabilities of the Defense Department’s In-Transit Visibility (ITV) and Total Asset Visibility (TAV) systems, which support the massive logistics requirements for deployed U.S forces. Impeva Labs’ globally operational, continuous monitoring, tracking and security system was previously tested and deployed under the federally funded Operation Safe Commerce program with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The ARINC/Impeva Labs team’s next-generation solution includes tags with GPS position sensing, active alarms, and built-in global wireless connectivity to allow materiel and asset locating and monitoring anywhere on the planet. An additional possibility is development of an internal container tag, using ultra-wideband technology to provide wireless visibility of container contents.

www.army.mil

www.impeva.com

www.arinc.com