Joint Total Asset Visibility program in the US Military. A large potential market for printed electronics. In April 1992, the US Military decided to pursue TAV with considerable investment. To date, about $600 million has been spent on the core aspects of this program. It had to involve all arms of the service so the term Joint Total Asset Visibility (JTAV) was coined. It is not confined to the modest level of RFID tagging but encompasses all existing data acquisition methods as updating proceeds.
JTAV is the Defense Department's automated information capability for tracking equipment, personnel and supplies. It gives increasingly pervasive information on location, movement, status, identity of units, personnel, equipment and supplies. There is an overarching logistics strategy to support global end to end distribution and visibility capability, to coin the words of the US Military.
The Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Logistics (DUSD(L)), as the Secretary of Defense's Principal Staff Assistant (PSA) for logistics, designated the Army as Executive Agent to lead the initiatives for further development and implementation of the JTAV program. In 1995, The Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics (DCSLOG) established the JTAV Office to provide management of the effort. In 1998, the DUSD(L) reassigned the JTAV Program Executive Agency to the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). The DUSD(L) chairs the JTAV Council which consists of the Joint Staff J-4, Joint Staff J-1, the Service Logistics Chiefs, Director Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), Director Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and Deputy Commander-in-Chief (DCINC) United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM).
The JTAV Office operates as a joint organization with guidance provided by the DUSD(L) to the Executive Agent. The JTAV Office is responsible to ensure a JTAV capability is provided throughout the DOD by ensuring JTAV functional requirements are satisfied by DOD-wide automated information systems. It focuses on providing asset visibility in-storage, in-process and in-transit to help optimise DOD's warfighting capability and the ability to conduct operations other than war. The JTAV Office also evaluates the design, development, integration, and implementation of logistics processes, technologies and systems to achieve these requirements. Using active RFID tags (i.e. With battery for long range etc.), assets are now monitored in 40 countries at 400 nodes at seaports, airports, rail terminals and army bases.
The JTAV Office ongoing mission is to ensure that the required level of TAV capability is provided to the Combatant Commanders. This includes subordinate Joint Task Force (JTF) Commanders, the Services and DOD activities. The focus of the JTAV Office is on executing the JTAV Implementation Plan in support of this. The JTAV Office performs the central role as the functional integrator. It serves as the proponent for JTAV and will lead and manage the Joint TAV effort DOD-Wide.
See Item Level RFID