The US Navy uses the RFID warship inventory replenishment system to significantly increase inventory efficiency

On the shores of Florida in early July, sailors of US warships successfully demonstrated a warship inventory replenishment system, demonstrating the practicality of passive RFID systems.

The demonstration is an RFID-based cargo tracking solution developed by the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) of the Panama City Division (PCD). The solution is designed to eliminate the need for manual inventory of stocks like ordinary boats.

The RFID project attaches ultra-high-frequency (UHF) RFID tags to items stored in containers, which can significantly reduce crew time in warship replenishment and inventory counts. During the test of the project, the sailor could scan and inventory 1300 pieces of equipment within 21 minutes, which was an evolution of the replenishment process.

Previously, according to NSWC PCD, this task required three sailors to spend 72 hours to complete. The development of the project dates back to 2012.

The use of RFID technology can reduce the time it takes for sailors to take stock of containers, which can reduce the workload of combatants, said Bill Israelson, a project engineer at NSWC PCD. As the system proves to be accurate, we can quickly know what supplies the warship needs, so that the warship can quickly get what it needs and then return to the sea.

The crew decides whether to return to the port based on the inventory of the inventory at sea. Once in the port, engineers from the NSWC PCD can scan the items in the mission container and then they transfer the information to the computer to determine what needs to be added.

The RFID project is nearing the final testing and evaluation phase, which is a necessary process to verify the performance of the system. The prototype of the RFID project was originally developed by the Naval Research Office.