The Importance of Tracking in the Government and Military

In 2018, more than 135 million people worldwide were in need of humanitarian aid or assistance. The United States is proud to be the largest contributor to these efforts, with billions of dollars worth of assistance going out each year, and innumerable people involved in making it happen.  

This is just one of the major instances in our government where asset tracking plays a critical role. When an emergency response supply arrives late — or gets lost or damaged on the way — families are forced to go without food or shelter for days or weeks on end. Many have no choice but to walk miles just for clean water.

A recent example of this was the Ethiopian drought of 2015. In addition to prolonging the struggles of those affected, late response to the crisis cost donors an additional $127 million in food packages alone. This loss could have afforded meals to 1.4 million people for 9 months.

We’re hopeful that our cutting-edge technology can reduce or prevent these issues entirely.

LocatorX Founder Billy Meadow recently spoke to a panel of 500 senior officers and executives working in defense at the Global Force Symposium, an event held in Alabama by the Association of the United States Army. In his lecture, Billy discussed how our solid-state miniature atomic clock technology serves to benefit government operations.

“We see opportunities [to track assets] not just in the commercial world… we see opportunities to track military assets as well,” said Billy.

“All of this technology can provide a very low-cost mechanism that provides more assurance with military assets.”

Humanitarian aid is only the beginning. According to estimates, the U.S. military has nearly 40,000 active armored fighting vehicles, and more than 13,000 aircraft. Each has countless expensive parts, with the constant need for repair and replacement. And a delayed delivery of these assets is not a mistake we can afford to make.

Wherever our service members are in the world — no matter the climate, surroundings or circumstances — they should receive the parts and supplies they need, on time and without hassle. This, unfortunately, is not always the case with GPS and other outdated forms of tracking.

Microchips and packing labels affixed with our self-locating technology make it possible to track anything, anywhere. Whether a medical package inside of a truck or a tank’s electrical component being delivered by jet, we want officers and soldiers to know where each item is at in the delivery lifecycle. In Phase Three of our technology rollout — complete scaling of our solid-state miniature atomic clock — tracking chips themselves will self-locate, and alert recipients or senders if they go off track.

“We’re intending to add our solid-state miniature atomic clock to all of this, so that that device would know where it is,” said Billy. “So when it’s shipped from Point A to Point B, it would know from its geofence, ‘Did I ever make to to Point B? If I’m not there, I need to transmit and tell someone.’”

Furthermore, the ownership transactions that can be updated and stored for assets can provide critical insights at every step along the way. In other words, users will know details about the individual items and their respective journeys — where they’ve been, who has handled them, and any other notes deemed relevant. If cyber criminals make any attempt to intrude or infect an asset, not only will this technology help prevent the incident, it will notify the owners of the incident with important details.

Thanks to our comprehensive security framework, this data will remain confidential and only accessible by the main parties involved. This is just one more step we are taking to ensure satisfaction and safety for our partners and anyone handling an asset that uses our technology.

Our diverse board of industry professionals recently added two members with decorated government backgrounds to lend expertise on this vital space for our company. We’re honored to have the 23rd Secretary of the Air Force, Deborah Lee James, and retired Major General Jim Myles of the U.S. Army as part of the LocatorX team. They will play an invaluable role in our government-focused efforts, and firmly believe in the resounding potential of these use cases.

“This technology is a game changer,” says Myles, who served for 36 years and specialized in aviation maintenance during and since that time. “When I first learned about LocatorX and the potential capability to secure the supply chain for all military parts, my eyes lit up.”  

“When you think about what we’re doing, it’s huge for our country.”

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