In 2010, the U.S. Army Logistics Innovation Agency (LIA) will leverage global communications integrator Arinc’s Asset Assure wireless satellite tracking systems to provide weapons manufacturers and intermediaries with real-time global cargo shipment tracking — a development intended to drastically reduce risks and streamline management issues associated with shipping hazardous materials.
    Jim Potter, Arinc’s tracking program director, explained the problems his company’s system intends to solve and how its uses can expand beyond military use. “When you put something in a shipping container and lock it up, you want to know who handles it and when, and you’d like to know if the shipment is late and not going to be where it is supposed to be,” he said. “But you’d also like to know if the container is opened at any point along the way, and perhaps you want to know what the temperature is inside and whether shocks occurred to the container. And you want to know all this in a very real-time sense. This is in-transit visibility, and that is what Asset Assure provides.”
    Asset Assure features two main components — a global sentinel unit, which serves as a radio frequency identification (RFID) interrogator and communications gateway, and remote sensor units, which functions as ID tags. Each sensor transmits a unique ID number and a series of data collected from wired and wireless sensors communicating with the sensor. The global unit forwards all data to servers located at Impeva Labs which serve as a management center.

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    Arinc also addressed security issues involving signals from the sentinel units to the satellite — a concern of many military officials dealing with commercial companies. Potter said all cargo-related data and GPS position reports are encrypted before being sent over the satellite or cellular communications link. Customers can then securely access or download the data via a secure extensible markup language link to their own transportation management systems on site. Asset Assure can be configured to send alerts via e-mail, text message and voice mail.
    Monty Montero, Arinc vice president of defense systems engineering, claims Arinc’s satellite link works from any location on Earth. “The solution is more cost-effective, scalable, accurate and reliable than active-RFID solutions that must be locally deployed,” he said.
    Arinc landed a five-year, $20 million deal to develop Asset Assure for the U.S. Army in May 2006. In December, Arinc, owned by the Carlyle Group, announced it was testing its commercial variant of the military technology with the Army. The 60-day test on a rail shipment was completed early January. While details of the test were not disclosed, Arinc said the global unit sent reports every few hours and then more often when the shipments were moving through military installations. At one point during the test, Arinc said the global unit sent an alert when a door was opened on one of the containers as part of the test.

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    “This demonstration marks the first time a [U.S. Department of Defense] rail shipment has been continuously monitored in real time by satellite from origin to destination," said Montero. “In addition, the Arinc-Impeva [wireless] capability is the first continuous satellite tracking solution that is both Hazards of Electromagnetic Radiation to Ordnance certified and operates completely within the [Department of Defense] environment.”
    With the completion of the test, the Army will begin certifying the solution complies with the Pentagon’s information assurance procedures.