U.S. Department of Defense

While the consumer goods industry was hard at work with EPCglobal, Inc. and the development of standardized RFID technology, the US DoD realized they may be able to leverage the benefits that RFID technology was touted as providing. The US DoD began to get involved with these commercial efforts so they may address some of their own needs with these initiatives. They determined that the technology could also be used to augment their own supply chain.

On July 30th, 2004 the Acting Under Secretary of Defense released a memorandum describing its policy for implementing the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) for the US Department of Defense (DoD). This policy “finalized” the business rules for the use of active tags, passive tags, the Electronic Product Code (EPC), and compatible equipment in its supply chain. In the memorandum, The Acting Under Secretary stated, “… and RFID-capable DoD supply chain is a critical element of Defense Transformation and will provide a key enabler for the asset visibility support down to the last tactical mile that is needed by our warfighters”.

Multiple attachments were included:

• Attachment 1 contained detailed guidance on implementing the use of Active RFID tags.
• Attachment 2 contained detailed guidance on implementing the use of Passive RFID tags.
• Attachment 3 contained detailed guidance for its suppliers to create an implementation plan for contracts issued on or after October 1, 2004 and materiel supplied to the DoD on or after January 1, 2005.

These documents described required frequency ranges, data constructs, methods of funding, sample tag placement suggestions and read performance requirements.

Slow adoption and ratification of EPCglobal specifications and product availability shortages forced the DoD to issue an update in 2005 establishing the official start date as November 14th, 2005. It stated that the use of existing Class 0 and EPCglobal Class 1 Gen 1 tags were acceptable until the prevalent availability of EPC Class 1 Generation 2 tags and equipment (UHF Gen 2).

On May 19th, 2006 the DoD established a sunset date of Oct 1, 2006 for Class 0 and EPCglobal Class 1 Gen 1 tags. EPCglobal Class 1 Gen 2 tags were required moving forward. These documents were published on the US DoD’s website at www.dodrfid.org. This web site continues to be updated and appended to on a regular basis.

Just recently the US DoD has finalized its relevant contractual clause writing efforts and is now including these new clauses in its latest contracts and contract renewals. US DoD suppliers are now bracing themselves for the coming storm of RFID compliance for new and renewed contracts.

Are you prepared to meet RFID compliance today or in the near future?