13 PLA units get new personal ID tags

Many members of the People's Liberation Army now have a new set of gadgets – personal identification tags, which will help to improve the management of service members and battlefield logistical and medical support.

According to PLA Daily, the military's flagship newspaper, members from 13 units of the Navy, Air Force and Rocket Force have been given the set that consists of three parts – a main metal tag engraved with the bearer's name, rank, blood type and military member code, an auxiliary metal tag with a quick response code and a built-in microchip recording the bearer's health information. There also is a wristwatch capable of measuring the bearer's heart rate and sending distress signals.

Officers and medical professionals in these units were given a cellphone-like device that can receive signals sent from soldiers, scan a tag bearer's quick response code and record emergency and medical situations.

The tags and auxiliary instruments started to be developed in November 2013 and the first products were used on a trial basis by a brigade of the 27th Group Army, the report said, adding they have proved to be effective in battlefield medical efforts through combat exercises by the brigade.

The United States was the first country to give identification tags to members of its armed forces. Currently, the military in more than 30 nations, including Russia, Germany and Japan, use identification tags.