AUTHENTICATED TRACKING AND MONITORING SYSTEM (ATMS)

The Authenticated Tracking and Monitoring System (ATMS) has been designed to provide a system for monitoring the status and location of proliferation-sensitive items (PSI's) on a world-wide basis. The ATMS concept uses secure sensor packs to monitor items and environmental conditions, collects this information through a sensor processing unit, transmits the data globally via the existing Inmarsat satellite system, and then relays this information to ground stations for processing and display. A typical ATMS application would be to track and monitor the safety and security of a number of items in transit along a scheduled shipping route. The resulting tracking, timing, and status information could then be utilized to ensure compliance with, for example, various treaties. Selected items to be monitored could include Treaty Limited Items (TLIs) such as nuclear weapon systems. Reentry Vehicles (RVs), weapon delivery and launch systems, chemical and biological agents. Special Nuclear Material (SNM), and related nuclear weapons manufacturing equipment. The ATMS has recently been successfully demonstrated in a proof-ofconcept mode (August 1993), and consisted of continuously tracking and monitoring the status of a mock-up shipment throughout several states within the U.S. The ATMS has potential applications in the areas of arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation treaty verification, and military asset control, as well as International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Euratom safeguards monitoring activities. The concept focuses on a monitoring technology for PSIs. However, the system's potential applications are numerous and broad in scope, and could be applied to other types of monitoring activities as well.