ABSTRACT
The U.S. Army has been utilizing active RFID technology since as early as 1993. These early efforts were a direct result of the logistical problems encountered in the Middle East operations, Desert Shield and Desert Storm between 1990 and 1991. Early efforts included tagging cargo for North Atlantic Treaty Organization operations in Haiti and Macedonia, with approximately 35% of the cargo tagged. Over the next few years, the Army increased the percentage of cargo being tagged until 2001 where approximately 85% of the cargo shipped to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom was tagged. The next most signiŽcant event was the 2004 Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics directive that all the services use high data capacity, active RFID technology to support the in-transit visibility (ITV) of supplies. According to DOD policy, all containers being shipped from the Continental United States (CONUS) to Outside the Continental United States (OCONUS), OCONUS to CONUS, or between combatant commands must have data-rich active RFID tags.
