But placing RFID tags in weapons raises security concerns that enemies could detect troops on the battlefield. military are using radio frequency identification to keep track of guns. VIDEO: The Associated Press has found that some units in the U.S. military is not alone in employing RFID for firearms management: Government armories in Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere have been outfitted. military, use grew in the 1990s, after the first Gulf War showed a need to untangle vast supply chains of shipping containers. The origins of RFID trace to World War II and the development of radar. With Air Force commanders looking to bolster armory security, defense contractors offered a familiar technology - one with a military pedigree. Authorities recovered the weapon, but the incident reverberated across the service. Momentum for RFID built within the Air Force after a 2018 case in which a machine gun disappeared from the 91st Security Forces Group, which guards an installation that houses nuclear-tipped missiles. Lewis Aldridge abruptly said that the technology “didn’t meet operational requirements” and wouldn’t be used across the service. Then this week, after extended questioning, spokesman Lt. The Navy told AP one armory on a base up the coast from Los Angeles was using RFID for inventory. A separate pilot project at Fort Bragg, the sprawling Army base in North Carolina, was suspended due to COVID-19. Special forces soldiers can take tagged weapons into the field, said Maj. Executives at military contracting companies said many more units have sought proposals.Ī Florida-based Army Green Berets unit, the 7th Special Forces Group, confirmed it uses the technology in “a few” arms rooms. Spokespeople at the headquarters of the Air Force and Army said they did not know how many units have converted their armories.ĪP found five Air Force bases that have operated at least one RFID armory, and one more that plans a retrofit. “It would pose a significant operations security risk in the field, allowing an adversary to easily identify DOD personnel operating locations and potentially even their identity,” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Which is why a spokesman for the Department of Defense said its policymakers oppose embedding tags in firearms except in limited, very specific cases, such as guns that are used only at a firing range - not in combat or to guard bases.
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troops at distances far greater than advertised by contractors who install the systems. The field tests showed how tags inside weapons can be quickly copied, giving would-be thieves in gun rooms and armories a new advantage.Īnd, more crucially, that even low-tech enemies could identify U.S. The examination included new field tests that demonstrated some of the security issues RFID presents. armed services use technology to keep closer control of their firearms as part of an investigation into stolen and missing military guns - some of which have been used in street violence. Outside the armory, however, the same silent, invisible signals that help automate inventory checks could become an unwanted tracking beacon. When embedded in military guns, RFID tags can trim hours off time-intensive tasks, such as weapon counts and distribution. Tags are in some identity documents, airline baggage tags and even amusement park wristbands.
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Thin RFID tags help drivers zip through toll booths, hospitals locate tools and supermarkets track their stock. RFID, as the technology is known, is infused throughout daily civilian life.
The Marines have rejected radio frequency identification technology in weapons for that very reason, and the Navy said this week that it was halting its own dalliance. The rollout on Army and Air Force bases continues even though the Department of Defense itself describes putting the technology in firearms as a “significant” security risk. military units have turned to a technology that could let enemies detect troops on the battlefield, The Associated Press has found.
Determined to keep track of their guns, some U.S.