Managing weapons & ammunition

for United Nations Office at Geneva with electronic lockers

In 2014, ecos provided several electronic locker systems to meet the requirements of the UN. A total of 250 motorized ecos drawer 1m/2 compartments were used to manage small arms. In addition, 50 drawer 4M/3 for long weapons and 300 ecos depot electronic compartments with polycarbonate doors were used to store ammunition.

Because weapons and ammunition are stored separately and protected from access, but are accessible via a common control unit, the equipment can be removed quickly and efficiently. To avoid human error, all weapons are stored in automatically closing motorized drawers. These ensure that even if someone forgets to close the drawer, the drawer will close by itself after a few seconds. This prevents unauthorized access to the managed weapons.

Access to the weapons managed in this way takes place at the central control unit of the locker, a capacitive 10-inch touchscreen with outsourced fingerprint/vein reader. Employees authenticate themselves by fingerprint while still outside the armory, whereupon the door to the storage room is released. At the locker itself, they then use the touch screen to select the corresponding system and the associated compartment in order to open it.

For the past 8 years, all weapons and ammunition types at the UN headquarters in Geneva have been managed securely and access-protected with the ecos drawers and depots. The daily use of the locker system ensures efficient withdrawals and returns of all types of weapons.

The central control of the total of 600 compartments ensures smooth processes. In compliance with all security regulations, weapons and ammunition are stored separately and locked. Nevertheless, access to both is simple and straightforward, as the relevant employee can open all the required compartments simultaneously at the common control unit.

All weapons are stored in automatically closing drawer systems with gap dimensions in accordance with military security regulations. Combined with the unique authentication of all employees by fingerprint, the highest security measures can thus be maintained.