thedrifter
04-18-07, 07:04 PM
Army improving arms-inventory tracking
By Kris Osborn - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Apr 18, 2007 18:03:14 EDT
Lawmakers told Army leaders they worry that U.S. soldiers are being attacked with American weapons stolen by Iraqi insurgents.
“A lot of the equipment is falling into the wrong hands. A lot of the equipment being used to shoot us is our own,” Rep. James Moran, D- Va., told Army leaders at a House Appropriations Defense subcommittee hearing April 18. “A number of people who we train, equip and pay wind up being militia.”
Army Lt. Gen. Ann Dunwoody, deputy chief of staff, G-4, said her service needs to better track the final 20 percent of their worldwide inventory, but they have made enormous progress with a new database in the last year.
The Army has stepped up implementation of the Property Book Unit Supply, a Web-based data system that uses radio-frequency identification and barcode technology to label and account for each piece of equipment.
The Army program has now accounted for $230 billion worth of its equipment, roughly 80 percent of the total, Dunwoody said — a jump from the $124 billion which was accounted for about two years ago.
“Now you have a lifecycle tracking of an item through its entire life,” she said. “With the barcode, we get it into a data space so we never lose visibility” of the equipment.
About $1 billion more in funding would be needed to finish the project, Dunwoody said.
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa, the subcommittee’s chairman, asked for meetings with Army leaders to arrange for Congress to provide the $1 billion needed to complete the program.
The barcode system can also help describe and improve the readiness of units, said Dunwoody and Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Speaks, deputy chief of staff, G-8.
“We’re working through an Army that is based on cyclical readiness,” Speaks said. “We must be able to manage property. Now, a young company commander can have access to the barcode data system.”
Ellie
By Kris Osborn - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Apr 18, 2007 18:03:14 EDT
Lawmakers told Army leaders they worry that U.S. soldiers are being attacked with American weapons stolen by Iraqi insurgents.
“A lot of the equipment is falling into the wrong hands. A lot of the equipment being used to shoot us is our own,” Rep. James Moran, D- Va., told Army leaders at a House Appropriations Defense subcommittee hearing April 18. “A number of people who we train, equip and pay wind up being militia.”
Army Lt. Gen. Ann Dunwoody, deputy chief of staff, G-4, said her service needs to better track the final 20 percent of their worldwide inventory, but they have made enormous progress with a new database in the last year.
The Army has stepped up implementation of the Property Book Unit Supply, a Web-based data system that uses radio-frequency identification and barcode technology to label and account for each piece of equipment.
The Army program has now accounted for $230 billion worth of its equipment, roughly 80 percent of the total, Dunwoody said — a jump from the $124 billion which was accounted for about two years ago.
“Now you have a lifecycle tracking of an item through its entire life,” she said. “With the barcode, we get it into a data space so we never lose visibility” of the equipment.
About $1 billion more in funding would be needed to finish the project, Dunwoody said.
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa, the subcommittee’s chairman, asked for meetings with Army leaders to arrange for Congress to provide the $1 billion needed to complete the program.
The barcode system can also help describe and improve the readiness of units, said Dunwoody and Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Speaks, deputy chief of staff, G-8.
“We’re working through an Army that is based on cyclical readiness,” Speaks said. “We must be able to manage property. Now, a young company commander can have access to the barcode data system.”
Ellie