ARINC Inc. and Impeva Labs received a small task order under an existing $20 million 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 Western U.S., and then later from the depot to an ammunition supply point in operational theater.
The Next Generation Wireless Communications tracking and sensor system being developed under the five-year contract awarded in 2006 already is in limited use by some commercial customers. The ongoing Army field test is the first sanctioned by the Defense Department of technology that can continuously monitor a rail shipment, the two companies say.
That demonstration will also track retrograde shipments, which are containers being shipped back to the U.S.
Unlike active radio frequency identification tags which DoD uses to track container shipments as they move through chokepoints equipped with either a fixed reader infrastructure or handheld readers carried by personnel, 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 alarm goes off, or when it is queried by a customer or regulatory agency, James Potter, senior manager for RF Systems and Global Asset Tracking at ARINC, tells TR2. Moreover, the ARINC-Impeva system doesn’t require local infrastructure.
“Things happen between chokepoint reads,” Potter says. “I can tell you if a shipment is off route, if there are problems with a refrigerated container, if a door is open, and other possible problems.” The system has a two-way communications channel so that not only can diagnostics be pulled from a container, changes can be delivered where applicable, such as to a refrigerated unit, he adds.
The military’s interest in a satellite-based container security system is based on a desire to get away from the fixed reader infrastructure and to improve visibility, he says.
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 secular, while the mesh nodes have shorter range communications but can form networks with each other and ultimately use a gateway device to transmit information to the device management center. Eventually, as networks build out, gateway devices could just be put on ships, trucks and locomotives rather than on so many containers, Potter says.
For military logistics applications, Potter says mesh nodes can be fitted on the containers and gateway devices and be installed on trucks. With a big convoy, only a limited number of gateway nodes would be needed, he says.
Both the gateway and mesh node devices, which for appearance sake are the same and are called Global Sentinel, are equipped with GPS sensors and others such as multi-spectral light, temperature, humidity, and shock and vibration. The system, which is internally mounted on the door frame save for the antenna which is exposed just outside the container door, can also accommodate chemical and radiation detection sensors.
Non-DoD Markets
Already the industry team has commercial customers such as Horizon Lines, Inc. [HRZ], which is an ocean shipping and integrated logistics company, and Agility, which is a Third Party Logistics Provider. So far these customers just have the gateway nodes but Potter says 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, which is a portfolio company of the private equity firm The Carlyle Group, has its eye on potential work with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the wireless container security system but so far hasn’t received any development work from the department, Potter says. However, ARINC’s Army customer is conducting outreach efforts throughout the federal government to agencies who are interested in the technology, he says.
The ARINC-Impeva container security system has already been developed, Potter points out. At the end of the Army contract, which will include a rigorous round of information assurance testing of the entire system, Potter hopes the system will be entering low rate production with DoD.
As for DHS, Potter says the ARINC-Impeva team isn’t waiting for Customs and Border Protection to mandate the use of container security devices or provide trade benefits to shippers that use them. There’s already a market for the technology for shipments of valuable goods, he says. There are only three manufacturers of refrigerated containers and Potter believes that in a few years those companies will be outfitting all their containers with the Asset Assure gateway nodes.
Still, Potter says, DHS does have some Broad Agency Announcements related to container security that ARINC and Impeva plan to reply to.
In addition to various shipping markets, Asset Assure can also be used for fixed asset monitoring such as pipelines, Potter says.
The Global Sentinel devices were designed by Impeva and are contract manufactured by Sanmina-SCI.