Tagging war shipments: far more complicated task than expected.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Up Front

By January 2005, all shipments of military equipment and supplies destined for Iraq or other battle zones must be labeled with an electronic tag that helps track the content of each box or package.

The Defense Department is requiring all of its 43,000 vendors to employ these tracking labels on all products shipped, or risk not getting paid. But as the deadline looms, a great deal of confusion prevails among military logisticians and contractors on how to go about complying with this mandate. The required labels, known as "passive radio-frequency identification tags," are used widely in the commercial sector, but the industry is far from having standardized technical requirements and protocols.

Making matters more complicated is the fact that the data inside every RFID tag only can be retrieved if one has the right kind of "reader." The tag contains a radio transmitter that wakes up when it receives a radio signal from a reader to which it then communicates its stored information via radio waves. The readers are networked into the tracking organizations' computer systems which then monitor and track the tagged items.

Both military and industry experts said the Defense Department's RFID mandate--designed to expedite the deliveries of critical military supplies--could accomplish the opposite effect if these technical issues are not addressed right away.

Active RF tags--brick-size devices that emit energy and are battery-operated--have been around since World War II, but the passive tags present a host of technical hurdles, especially in a military environment. Both the Defense Department and major corporations prefer the passive tags, because they cost less than 50 cents apiece, compared to $100 each for the active tags.

A Pentagon spokesperson told National Defense that passive RF tags will be mandatory for all orders placed after October 2004, and that contractors can expect to see guidelines posted on the www.dodait.com website.

Senior military logisticians, meanwhile, appear uncertain on what exactly this policy will accomplish and whether such a tight deadline is realistic.

The Army, for example, has more than $200 million budgeted for passive RFID technology, but service officials are concerned that it may be premature to spend that much money until the standards and protocols are settled.

Leading the RFID efforts is the office of Alan Estevez, the assistant deputy undersecretary of defense for supply chain integration. During a meeting...