By Calvin Biesecker
ARINC Inc. and Impeva Labs have won a small task order under an existing contract with the Army Logistics Innovation Agency to install and demonstrate their satellite and cellular-based container security system to continuously monitor shipments of arms, ammunition and explosives, first from a depot to a seaport in the United States, and then later from the depot to an ammunition supply point in theater.
The wireless tracking and sensor system being developed under a potential five-year, $20 million contract awarded in 2006 already is in limited use by some commercial customers. The field test is the first sanctioned deployment by the Defense Department of technology that can continuously monitor a rail shipment, the companies said.
Unlike active radio frequency identification tags which the Defense Department uses to track container shipments as they move through chokepoints equipped with a reader infrastructure, the system being developed by ARINC and Impeva can provide in-transit visibility at any time. Because the container security devices are battery powered, the system can be designed to report at specific intervals, when a sensor is alerted, or when it is queried by a customer or regulatory agency, James Potter, senior manager for RF Systems and Global Asset Tracking at ARINC, told Defense Daily.
The container security system, which is being branded as Asset Assure, consists of a gateway device and a mesh node, either of which can be affixed to a shipping, rail or trucking container, as well as a device management center that enables global tracking. The gateway device has the ability to communicate at long ranges via satellite or cellular, while the mesh nodes have shorter range communications but can form networks with each other and ultimately a gateway device to transmit information to the device management center.
Both the gateway and mesh node devices are equipped with GPS sensors as well as others such as multi-spectral light, temperature, and shock and vibration. The system can also accommodate chemical and radiation detection sensors.
Already the industry team has commercial customers such as Horizon Lines, Inc. [HRZ] and Third Party Logistics Provider Agility. So far these customers just have the gateway devices but Potter said that work under the Army contract has gotten to the point where the mesh nodes are now commercially available. He expects Horizon to acquire the mesh nodes.
ARINC has its eye on potential work with the Department of Homeland Security for the wireless container security device but so far hasn’t received any development work from the department, Potter said. However, ARINC’s Army customer is conducting reach out efforts throughout the federal government to agencies who are interested in the technology, he said.
The ARINC-Impeva container security system has already been developed, Potter pointed out. At the end of the Army contract, which will include a rigorous round of information assurance testing of the entire system, Potter hopes that the container security system is entering low rate production for DoD.
ARINC is a portolio company of the private equity firm The Carlyle Group.