From Sun Tzu to Cosgrove, it’s not difficult to find a quote from any of history’s iconic commanders about the importance of logistics to success on the battlefield.

Sustaining logistics support to the Australian Defence Force during a time of heightened operational tempo, in multiple areas of operation, is an ongoing challenge.

The advent of a new capability, removing many of the manual interventions required in tracking materiel through the existing logistic system, will help ensure ongoing high quality support to our forces anywhere in the world.

Under the banner of Joint Project (JP) 2077 Phase 2C, Defence is set to roll out a world-class ‘Track and Trace’ system that will enable automated tracking of stores and equipment through the supply chain anywhere in the world.

Building on the existing Cargo Visibility System (CVS), the new ‘Track and Trace’ capability incorporates leading edge Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology that will register specially tagged cargo as it passes fixed or mobile choke-point readers. The progress of the consignment can then be monitored directly through logging on to a standard Defence Restricted Network terminal.

The ‘Track and Trace’ capability will provide a number of significant benefits to Defence including reduced in-theatre handling requirements, automated tracking updates at multiple points along the supply chain, more accurate measurement of transit time, and the ability to rapidly locate consignments in transit areas.

Significantly, it also represents an important step towards the delivery of a purpose-built Integrated In-Transit Visibility system in 2009 under the JP2077 program of work.

It will also be interoperable with Australia ’s major Defence partners with a memorandum of understanding already signed with the United States (US), United Kingdom and Canada . Interoperability testing between Australia and the US is currently being programmed, with hardware installation complete and software updates currently in progress.