Addressing the U.S. Military’s Missing Weapons Problem with Better Tracking Solutions

In 2017, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command discovered that 32 grenades were stolen from a container of explosives. But these grenades are far from the only weapons that have been diverted from the armed forces.
From 2010 to 2019, the U.S. Army reported the loss or theft of:
It’s difficult to know what’s missing because of the military’s legacy tracking systems, which are full of discrepancies. It’s likely that the U.S. military’s official reports underestimate the degree of theft and loss.
Military-grade weapons are incredibly dangerous in the hands of terrorists, criminals, and even unwitting civilians. Although the Pentagon can account for 99.9% of its weapons, the lost 0.01% is making the world a more dangerous place.
Without a significant overhaul, the U.S. military risks placing more weapons in the hands of its adversaries. This is why improved tracking systems are so critical: to solve a systematic problem, the U.S. military needs systematic solutions.
In light of this missing weapons problem, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021. This piece of legislation requires the military to be accountable to Congress for its lost and stolen weapons. Congress will now receive an annual report on the Pentagon’s missing weapons, adding a layer of accountability to an issue that has lacked oversight for decades.
The law also led to sweeping changes in how the U.S. military traces its weapons, including:
As the largest branch of the U.S. military, the Army has found itself in the midst of a weapons traceability overhaul. The Army no longer allows paper weapons tracking and has plans for digitizing the entire process. It even created an operations reporting center to collect incident reports in one centralized location.
Army Vantage is a new initiative that allows lost weapons reports to go up the chain of command without delays. Thanks to the power of AI and machine learning, the Army can now see its lost weapons reports in real-time, which was previously impossible.
Military-grade weapons must be stored and disposed of properly. By overlooking lost and stolen weapons, the Department of Defense is unwittingly arming criminals and terrorists with the latest and greatest technology.
Improved weapons tracking is essential to keep the public safe and offers benefits such as:
Weapons traceability makes the world a safer place, which is why the U.S. military is digitizing its tracking programs. With barcodes compliant with the Item Unique Identification (IUID) program and UID label scanners, the U.S. military can track the movement of its weapons and supplies, automatically.
UID tags are considered the gold standard for tagging military weapons because they:
In fact, these tags are so effective that Camcode Global has marked over 3 million assets with UID tags across 15 countries. Our barcode tracking solutions and asset tags leverage UID to comply with Army Vantage and the Defense Logistics Agency’s Small Arms Serialization Program (SASP).
Today, Camcode is the most experienced UID provider in the defense industry for one simple reason: it works. Camcode’s sophisticated IUID barcodes allow the military to:
UID marking is required by the U.S. Department of Defense for a variety of assets, but choosing the right labels is key for efficient tracking and streamlined compliance. Working with a trusted, experienced UID label supplier will help you keep your sensitive and valuable assets out of the wrong hands.
Our sales engineers are experts in automatic asset tracking, tagging and identification,a nd can answer all your questions. Get in touch now.
Lets Talk ›