DSEI 2025: ARES Armaments and Torchlight partner for ammo taggant

ARES Armaments Australia and Torchlight Technologies announced a memorandum of understanding on 9 September to develop commercial munitions with AmTag technology, which is designed to help track ammunition throughout its supply chain, from the point of manufacture to its last legal owner. The move follows a production trial in August at ARES’s headquarters in Adelaide, which demonstrated how the chemical tag could permanently link ammunition to its intended legal custodian.

The trial, which involved working with specialist sealant manufacturer Hernon Manufacturing, showed that AmTag could be combined with existing production lines without slowing down the manufacturing process, the ARES press release explains.

The agreement marks the culmination of nearly six years of research and development, a Torchlight representative said. “This agreement and the ongoing integration trial…demonstrates that AmTag is a low-friction solution to respond to increased calls from governments and international bodies for greater accountability in the munitions supply chain,” said Jonathan Rickell, Chief Product Officer for Torchlight.

While the firearms supply chain has established monitoring methodologies, the ability to trace loose rounds of ammunition has previously proven difficult. This has presented challenges for end users in identifying supply chain vulnerabilities and has hampered efforts by export control bodies to ensure that end users comply with export conditions.

Jason Murray, CEO of ARES Armaments, stated that the partnership would give its government and law enforcement clients in the Indo-Pacific region a “previously unobtainable level of track, trace and monitoring of all types of munitions.” The industrial integration of AmTag follows its successful operational deployment in state ammunition stocks in Somalia earlier in 2025.

Developed by Torchlight Technologies in partnership with Conflict Armament Research and DeterTech, AmTag uses rare earth elements and fluorescent compounds to create an indelible chemical taggant. The underlying technology is based on SmartWater, a system used for 30 years to tackle acquisitive crime, the press release states.

The taggant, which is only visible under UV light, is embedded within the ammunition’s sealant or bullet tip lacquer. It contains a unique chemical code that can be associated with chain of custody data, making each round traceable from its point of manufacture to its last legal custodian.

The companies state that this new method is the most cost-effective way for producers to demonstrate their commitment to improving supply chain security. The Global Framework on the Through-life Management of Conventional Ammunition, recently adopted by governments, calls for greater traceability of ammunition through more granular marking methods, with chemical tagging being one of the methods listed.

Calibre comment

Two events have thrown supply chains into sharp relief for most Western governments. COVID-19 led to widespread disruption of microchip and car production for several reasons. This placed some strain on defence supply chains, which was worsened by the second event, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It soon became clear that there was no capacity within most advanced supply chains to rapidly scale production to meet new needs. Additionally, the war came with the realisation that Russian missiles like the 9M723 Iskander were almost completely reliant on chips developed in the West. Supply chain transparency became and tracking the movement of parts from a manufacturer to the missiles became an area of intense focus. Tracking chips, like ammunition, is not straightforward. A large company might produce and sell millions of chips per month, making it nearly impossible to track an individual chip. With ammunition, at least, it may now be possible to improve that supply chain transparency. 

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on September 16, 2025. Credit for the lead image is ARES Armaments Australia, and shows the ARES and Torchlight teams.