Abstract :
Detecting and locating buried unexploded ordinance (UXO) is a major problem. There are both significant safety issues and significant cost issues. The article by Keith Shubert, Richard Davis, Thomas Barnum, and Bryan Balaban presents an interesting new approach to the problem: using R1FD tags to label the ordinance before it is used, and to locate the ordinance after it is buried. Note that even if a military entity were only able to tag its own ordinance, this still would address a significant practical portion of the overall problem. The article begins with a discussion of the practical issues of the UXO problem. The authors then identify a candidate commercial off-the-shelf RFID tag, noting that a particular mode of operation of the chosen tag offers some potential advantages for application to the UJXO problem.