U.S. Army Europe sustainment command using RFID technology to track movements across theater

Photo By Doug Magill | Radio Frequency Identification tags located on vehicles and equipment are scanned into the In-Transit Visibility Tracking Portal, at multiple European seaports, October 2019, where 21st Theater Sustainment Command elements can track the movement of vehicles and equipment in almost real time as it moves through the European theater in support of the fifth iteration of Atlantic Resolve rotations.  

KAISERSLAUTERN, RHEINLAND-PFALZ, GERMANY

10.31.2019

Courtesy Story

21st Theater Sustainment Command

U.S. Army Europe’s two-star sustainment command used Radio Frequency Identification technology to track vehicles as they moved throughout the European theater during the reception, staging and onward movement of the fifth Operation Atlantic Resolve rotation.

2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division -- the “Black Jack Brigade” -- based in Fort Hood, Texas arrived in Europe, October 2019, for a nine-month rotation replacing 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division -- the “Devil Brigade” -- based in Fort Riley, Kansas.

The deployment is the fifth in the Operation Atlantic Resolve series, which demonstrates the strong and unremitting U.S. commitment to NATO. Rotational units conduct bilateral, joint and multinational training events across 17 countries in the Atlantic Resolve area of operations.

2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, deployed approximately 3,500 personnel, 85 tanks, 120 Bradley fighting vehicles, 15 Paladins, 500 tracked vehicles, 1200 wheeled vehicles and pieces of equipment and 300 trailers into two European seaports of debarkation -- Vlissingen, Netherlands; and Riga, Latvia. This equipment received Radio Frequency Identification tags at Fort Hood and these RFID tags were used to track the deployment from home station through the ports of embarkation and again from the ports of debarkation to final destinations.
Equipment that arrived in Vlissingen moved by rail, barge, commercial line-haul and military convoy to designated locations in Poland and Romania. Equipment that arrived in Riga moved by rail, commercial line-haul and military convoy to designated locations in Lithuania. Convoys from Vlissingen drove more than 900 kilometers to reach their destinations in Poland, while convoys from Riga drove more than 330 kilometers to reach their destination in Lithuania.

Individual mission by conveyances were tracked using a combination of cellular and satellite tracking devices emplaced in Europe and the RFID tags emplaced at Fort Hood. Using capability in the Radio Frequency – In Transit Visibility Tracking Portal, the 21st Theater Sustainment Command linked the RFID tags to the cellular and satellite tracking devices. With the help of Army Futures Command’s Distribution and Retrograde APEX Management prototype, 21st leveraged – in nearly real time -- location data from the RFITV server, along with movement plans to ensure the Reception, Staging and Onward Integration movements executed according to plans. This capability is routinely used within 21st TSC to track unit deployments as well as sustainment shipments.

21st TSC also employs the capabilities of the Joint Capabilities Release - Logistics. JCR-LOG combines a built in RFID tag reader, the Global Positioning System, and Iridium communications to track both the JCR-LOG equipped vehicles and any RFID tags read. JCR-LOG is an exceptional tool for tracking unit moves where no fixed RFID interrogators/readers are available.

Of particular note during this deployment was the participation of NATO. In preparation for Defender 2020 next year, the Dutch military provided a Portable Deployment Kit with a team of operators in the port of Vlissingen. The Dutch team scanned U.S. Transportation Control Number from the Military Shipping Label utilizing the cellphone Barcode Solution App. The Dutch team additionally set up their equipment to receive the third incoming vessel and read the RFID tags on the equipment as they disembarked.

The RFID tag read events from the Dutch read site were identified by the Dutch as “not their RFID tags”. When a NATO member nation reads an RFID tag that does not belong to it, the read data is sent to the NATO Support Activity Routing Hub in Capella, Luxemburg. As suggested in the name, this “routing hub” receives these RFID reads and routes them to the Nation that owns the RFID tag. This was a significant test of NATO capabilities to read U.S. RFID tags and during next year’s Defender 2020, this capability will be deployed more extensively.

• Date Taken: 10.31.2019
• Date Posted: 11.04.2019 09:37
• Story ID: 350037
• Location: KAISERSLAUTERN, RHEINLAND-PFALZ, DE