U.S Army Using RFID for Tracking Rounds Fired

Filed in archive Implementation on November 14, 2006

Boom!Boom!Boom! The next time the American guns go blazing, RFID would be keeping a track of the rounds fired by them. For this purpose Benet Laboratories is working on an RFID system which will be tested on the M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank. Microelectromechanical sensors integrated with rfid tags will be helping operators track the number of rounds fired

In the first phase of trials the focus would only be on counting the number of rounds but later on the effect on gun barrel post firing and the intensity of heat and vibration would also be measured. Certainly this will help in ensuring that the defense equipments are maintained in a proper manner. Up till now all the information used to be collected manually.

This is how the system works. Whenever a vehicle gets ready to fire, an RF signal is sent by the reader to the RFID tags which transmits the RFID number and the count of rounds fired. The data can be accessed from a tablet PC in the vehicle and then downloaded for record purposes.

This implementation of RFID will not only serve the defence forces but also the RFID industry which always seems to be in the firing line.