Marines to Deploy Portable RFID Solution

August 22, 2005 -- The U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command has placed an initial order for 100 mobile RFID kits from Savi Technology Inc. for deployment in Southwest Asia.

The Portable Deployment Kit is an RFID "solution-in-a-case" for field operations, and combines two-dimensional bar coding, active RFID, GPS and satellite communications.

The system provides satellite communications to the DoD's In-Transit Visibility (ITV) network, and provides inventory management functionality without a fixed RFID infrastructure.

"The PDK is the result of collaborative efforts between Savi Technology and the DoD's PM J-AIT office to address the challenge of getting supply chain visibility in austere environments," said Lt. Col. Beth Rowley, Product Manager, Joint-Automatic Identification Technology (PM-J-AIT) office, which oversees RFID procurement contracts for the DoD and operates the RF-ITV system. "The PDK brings a needed additional resource to everyone involved in rapidly adjusting to and meeting the military's often-changing logistics requirements."

Savi worked with the DoD for more than a year to develop the system, which was tested in Kuwait and Iraq.
"The PDK is a fully operational solution right out of the box that can be easily transported at a moment's notice to meet the military's need to locate supplies at any time and anywhere," said David Stephens, Savi's Senior Vice President, Public Sector. "It's also much more than just a mobile choke-point solution for supplies equipped with active RFID devices. It is also a nested visibility solution that can leverage a wide range of Automatic Identification and Data Collection (AIDC) technologies that are used to keep track of supplies."

The kit is fully configurable and operational right out of the box. RFID and AIDC data is collected by the mobile reader, communicated to and processed by the Savi SmartChain Site Manager in the kit, and then transmitted to the DoD's ITV network server via an Iridium Modem with GPS to provide exact location. Tags can also be read and modified onsite with the Savi handheld Mobile Reader.