We've worked hard to make our supply situation a little different from that Indiana Jones scene with the artifact going into the huge warehouse with identical crates as far as the eye could see:
A larger problem, keeping track of stuff that is in the long supply pipeline from the United States to wherever the fighting is, has made use of a new technology that has been adopted more slowly by commercial firms. It's RFID (radio-frequency identification), which has been in development for years, to replace bar codes, the previous revolution in keeping track of stuff. RFID uses small labels containing a cheap (less than a buck now, headed towards pennies each) electronic device that contains information about what is inside whatever it is attached to. The RFID is written to by a PC equipped with RFID writer hardware and software, or, in the latest generation of RFID chips, via a wireless device. What makes it all work is the ability of RFID to broadcast back when an electronic RFID reader is within range (at least ten feet) of an RFID tag.
This isn't as fascinating as a new weapon system. But it is more important since a fancy new weapon without the $5.00 failed grommet that makes it work won't do too much if you can't get that grommet.
I never forget the story I read that the Iranian war effort against Iraq (1980-1988) for two years or so was hampered by the quick thinking of our departing advisors who left after the Islamic revolution in Iran. We'd armed up the Shah and he had warehouses full of spare parts and supplies. But we erased the data showing where items were. It took two years (if I recall the time frame right) for the Iranians to recover that data in order to use those supplies.
