Army Monitors Assets in Transit on Land and Sea, Using ARINC/Impeva Tracking System at JLOTS '09

Annapolis, Maryland—In mid-June, the U.S. Army loaded hundreds of military assets—from cargo containers to Humvees^®—onto Navy transport ships at Norfolk, VA, and then tracked the progress of each individual item as it was shipped down the Atlantic coast and offloaded onto the beach at Camp Lejeune, NC, as part of the 2009 Joint Logistics Over-The-Shore (JLOTS) exercise.

The Army knew exactly where each container and vehicle was located at every step of the way, thanks to a next-generation logistics and asset tracking system developed by ARINC Incorporated and its partner Impeva Labs. Based on radio frequency (RF) asset tags and satellite technology, the new system allowed authorized military observers anywhere in the world to monitor the GPS locations of their tagged materiel in real time, from Norfolk to the destination beach—with accuracies associated with civil GPS. The successful tracking demonstration played a key role in JLOTS ’09, a multi-service cargo distribution exercise.

Known as Next Generation Wireless Communications for Logistics Applications, or NGWC, the advanced tracking system requires no local power or ground communications infrastructure of any kind. It uses rugged, battery-powered electronic asset tags that form secure local mesh networks and link to mobile RF gateways. The gateways transmit GPS tag locations and sensor data over secure long-range communications channels such as satellite, cellular, or other available networks.

The JLOTS exercise demonstrated the ability of NGWC to be deployed very rapidly, and at a lower cost than systems commonly used today.

“JLOTS clearly demonstrated the viability of the system to manage assets in forward-reaching military operations where there is no existing RFID or network ground infrastructure,” said Monty Montero, ARINC Vice President, Defense Systems Engineering and a retired U.S. Army Major General logistician. “The NGWC solution also provides real-time in-transit visibility (ITV) from origin to destination, regardless of whether the asset is transported by ship, rail, truck, or plane. The capability that NGWC delivers today solves many military logistics problems and provides better support for the warfighter.”

ARINC and Impeva developed the NGWC logistics and asset tracking system under a contract from the Army G4’s Logistics Innovation Agency (LIA). The recent JLOTS exercise marked the Army’s third successful major test of the system, in a series that started in 2008.

“The testing at JLOTS demonstrated that the NGWC mesh works well in dynamic DoD logistics environments,” said Dave Evans of LMI Government Consulting, a company evaluating NGWC development for LIA. “The new NGWC mesh technology has the potential to assist these logistics processes at the local, tactical level by providing frequent position updates that could assist personnel managing the operation. This type of application is not readily available with other AIT (Automated Information Technology) solutions, without using extensive local infrastructure.”

Evans continued, “During the off-load at Norfolk, following the return from Lejeune, we had complete visibility including mapping, without any locally deployed equipment and without any human action or presence. The Humvee-mounted mobile gateways and mesh tagged equipment provided automatic position reports on the pier and within the staging yard, as soon as they came off the ship. This was a major milestone for the program.”

Later this year, the NGWC logistics system is scheduled to be deployed for additional performance testing at the 36,000-acre Sierra Army Depot (SIAD) in California. The Army is also looking at other potential deployments within the coming months.

The JLOTS ’09 exercise also helped validate the unique strength of NGWC known as mesh networking. “When a large number of NGWC tags are placed in the same local area, as on a ship, convoy, storage yard, or train, they link automatically into their own local mesh network without human intervention. The network sends GPS location and monitoring data from the group of asset tags over a single, secure, long range communications channel,” said Randall Shepard, Impeva Labs’ NGWC Program Director and COO. “NGWC’s advance in technology minimizes labor, hardware, and data transmission costs. It also provides an end-to-end view of assets in transit, which is exactly what military commanders want but could not get before NGWC. The commander can now see where each asset is right now—not where it was previously. The JLOTS exercise gave us an excellent opportunity to show the many benefits of this advanced capability.”

JLOTS ’09, the annual Joint Logistics Over-The-Shore (JLOTS) training exercise, was designed to ensure the capability of the Department of Defense to meet deployment and sustainment requirements if seaports are unavailable. Temporary piers, causeways, and landing craft are used to move cargo and vehicles from ship to shore and back. During JLOTS ‘09, the NGWC system successfully monitored hundreds of individual assets as they were moved to and from shore by numerous modes of transport.

Impeva Labs, Inc. is the leading supplier of continuous global asset visibility (tracking, tracing, monitoring and security). Impeva’s services enable effective asset management and the most efficient transportation of goods by providing a Continuous Chain of Custody (C-3) Shipping System^TM. Impeva’s customers can view real-time data from any location in the world, receive event alerts, and take corrective action without leaving the office. Impeva Labs is a privately held company based in Mountain View, CA for more information, visit the web site at www.impeva.com.

ARINC Incorporated, a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group, provides communications, engineering and integration solutions for commercial, defense and government customers worldwide. Headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland with regional headquarters in London and Singapore, ARINC is ISO 9001:2008 certified.

Release: 09-067

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