A cross industry alliance of technology firms last month was created to promote a standard for wireless data that is used in technology that tracks shipments by the U.S. military and is increasingly being used by commercial customers. The wireless data standard, known as 18000-7, is used in active radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions such as asset monitoring tags to track shipments of containers, hazardous materials, pharmaceutical products, vehicles and other goods. The U.S. military uses these tags and accompanying RFID reader infrastructure for logistics tracking. Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] Savi Technology business unit has been supplying the asset tracking tags for a number of years although recently the Defense Department brought additional vendors into the program through a new multi-vendor award (TR2, Jan. 7). Lockheed Martin, along with Northrop Grumman [NOC], which is also on the new RFID-III contract, Unisys [UIS], Texas Instruments [TI], Analog Devices [ADI], France’s Michelin and more companies are all part of the DASH7 Alliance. For asset monitoring, having a common wireless data standard will ensure that one vendor’s tags communicate through another vendor’s readers, says Pat Burns, head of licensing for Savi. Backers of the new alliance hope that it will be able to promote the 18000-7 standard to a wider range of applications, thus expanding the market for active RFID technology.