Bar codes and intrinsic-surface-roughness tag: Accurate and low-cost accountability for CFE. [Conventional force equipment (CFE)]
CFE poses a number of verification challenges that could be met in part by an accurate and low-cost means of aiding in accountability of treaty-limited equipment. Although the treaty as signed does not explicitly call for the use of tags, there is a provision for recording serial numbers'' and placing special marks'' on equipment subject to reduction. There are approximately 150,000 residual items to be tracked for CFE-I, about half for each alliance of state parties. These highly mobile items are subject to complex treaty limitations: deployment limits and zones, ceilings subceilings, holdings and allowances. There are controls and requirements for storage, conversion, and reduction. In addition, there are national security concerns regarding modernization and mobilization capability. As written into the treaty, a heavy reliance has been placed on human inspectors for CFE verification. Inspectors will mostly make visual observations and photographs as the means of monitoring compliance; these observations can be recorded by handwriting or keyed into a laptop computer. CFE is now less a treaty between two alliances than a treaty among 22 state parties, with inspection data an reports to be shared with each party in the official languages designated by CSCE. One of the potential roles for bar-coded tags would be to provide a universal, exchangable, computer-compatible language for tracking TLE. 10 figs.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 6229994
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9009295-2; ON: DE91007752
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 2. workshop on verification of arms reduction, Vienna (Austria), 3-5 Sep 1990
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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