back to article Aircraft boneyard gets tagged

The US Air Force is adopting RFID tagging to track tools and aeroplane parts around the aircraft storage and maintenance area at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, but with a site of 110 million square feet traditional tags won't give you much of a location. RFID is normally used for ranges around 10cm, which would make …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Are we quite sure of our facts here . . .

    RFID is normally used for ranges around 10cm

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    re: plans to tag everything

    Real time tracking of all tools? - wonder what will happen the workers will realise the fact the parts/tools haven't moved for hours and are happy to tell boss their location

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Re: Are we quite sure of our facts here . . .

    > RFID is normally used for ranges around 10cm

    Better double check yours. The RFID tags in the E-ZPass (and Fastlane) tags work well beyond 10cm.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    @comment 1

    You Sir, are an idiot - try reading the article

  5. JohnG
    Alert

    Risky!

    So if they forget to remove one of these tags, an enemy aircraft or air defense system might be able to use WLAN and RFID transponders to activate the tag. They might even be able to get track data straight from the onboard GPS. At the very least, they might be able to triangulate on a responding tag.

    @AC "RFID is normally used for ranges around 10cm" Yeah - Passive RFID not usually good for more than 30cm. However, Active RFID tags might be good for more than 100m.

  6. Joe Blogs
    Stop

    to AC @ 11:45

    Yes, I was also confused by that, especially the bit in the artice that states:

    "RFID is normally used for ranges around 10cm, which would make the technology impractical on a site of this size."

    Doh!!!!

    Next time RTFA?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Re: Re: Are we quite sure of our facts here . . .

    If you mentally insert quotes around comment 1 (not a tricky task) it makes sense. I'm guessing the AC was questioning they range given, and not suggesting what it really is.

    @AC Re: comment 1.

    You'll notice that it's taken verbatim from the article, ergo he read the article.

    We need a hand slaps face icon.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    When the ant army marches ...

    ... that 10cm range will be HUGE

    (please see icon)

    You probably should correct this:

    "RFID is normally used for ranges around 10cm"

  9. Sooty
    Joke

    re: comment 1

    I actually read that as questioning the validity of the 10cm statement.

    Punctuation is important!

  10. Tim Bates
    Flame

    Huge expensive task...

    And all in all it hopes to overcome the problem of idiots not putting things back when they are done.

    Gotta love the engineers solutions for problems. Training staff to clean up after themselves instead would probably save them millions. But hey, this is the US military. They don't have limits on their money...

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